Slip Up
by wolfsrainrules
Summary: Skull wonders sometimes, what they would think of him if they ever found out. He had lied for over 30 years to them after all. But they had never noticed. So he wonders. And then he doesn't have to wonder anymore. (Cover drawn by CyanCat, but commissioned by Moradacious Moratorium )
1. Chapter 1

**Soooooo….Harry-Is-Skull Fics.  
They….kind of…attacked me. And I have always LOVED KHR/HP crossovers, as well as Skull and I have no words for these fics and the lovely authors that have inspired me with their takes on this. The one to inspire THIS though is Northpeach. Well done darling. **

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" _What would they think of me?"_

It was something Skull thought to himself many, many times.

He was part of the Strongest Seven, had been for decades now. Decades they had believed they knew him.

Weak, they called him. Pathetic. Fool. Lackey. _Stupid_.

The _irony_.

Skull scoffed to himself, his face twisted into something part mocking, part anger, part hurt, part sadness and he was so _tired_.

 _They_ had looked to him from almost the moment he was born, had called on him as Their 'knight' the 'fix-all' solution to Their problems. He had _needed_ to be strong, to stand at the front, to lead and protect and _be_ Their knight for all things.

He had left.

It was too much, _much_ too soon.

He had won Their war, and they wanted so much more from him, wanted and _wanted_ and _**wanted**_.

Skull had had _enough_. He had left it all behind him.

It was time for him to live for himself.

He had wanted to be someone else.

Someone _Not Harry_.

So he had been and still was _Skull De Mort_ \- chosen as a reminder of what he had walked away from and his victory against Tom Riddle- Voldemort.

He had stumbled upon Stunt Riding by accident. A Stunt Show had come to the town he had been in.

Skull still remembered sitting in the crowd, his heart in his mouth, watching as the rider rode a motorcycle up a ramp while in a handstand- one hand on the seat the other gripping the handlebars- and the jump. Skull remembered the seemingly endless moment the rider was in the air, the moment Skull had thought for an instant- _He's not going to make it_ \- remembered holding his breath and then he remembered the landing and the great exhale he had released with the crowd.

Skull had been so…

He didn't really have words for it. The War had hardened him. He had… _too many_ scars, then all the pressure from Them, the expectations that he needed to just _keep going_ , that expectation meaning he was never truly given an opportunity to _heal_ as he should have…

Skull was a soldier. He was a soldier who had staggered through the aftermath of a war with other soldiers all the while still being expected to be _General_ even long after he should have been done.

Leaving had helped.

A little.

When he had found it the stunt show had been a distraction. A passing thing, something that had reminded him of happier times- when Sirius had been alive and the two of them had slipped away with no one the wiser an Sirius had taught him to ride motorcycles- something to look at and move on.

He hadn't expected to feel a small spark of interest- the first spark of genuine interest he had felt in _years_ that didn't involve the need to survive.

Skull had pursued it and that spark slowly grew.

He went from waking up in the morning with images and memories of the war, of screams in his ears, of pleas he hadn't been able to answer echoing in his mind, of the raging agony of the torture he had lived through throbbing like a phantom pain _all the time_ to waking up still suffering from these things, but _he had something to look forward too now_. It wasn't _all consuming_.

There was _light_ in his darkness for the first time.

Skull wondered sometimes if that had something to do with his love for being a Stuntman.

It could have been anything.

Whatever had sparked that interest that day, whatever had shown him a flicker of light in shadows and pain.

But it had been a Stuntman to offer him the glimpse of light.

And so Skull De Mort the Immortal Stuntman was born.

New to the world and learning still, not yet the best, not yet aware of what he would one day awaken, and in awakening it what he would one day walk into. Not yet.

Skull watched the Arcobaleno walking ahead of him, beginning to grow again, and he wondered…if they knew what he had done, what he had lived through….

" _What would they think of me?"_


	2. Chapter 2

The Arcobaleno were his Family at this point.

Skull isn't even sure how it _happened_.

It hadn't been planned.

Hell, Skull had been _sure_ it wouldn't happen.

Not with the way the others all looked down on him, how they judged him, how they hit him and then hit him again, how they never took him seriously.

At first he had only come back to them because it had been such a _contrast_ to being 'Harry'. It was nearly the opposite. He was considered 'weak' he didn't have to lead anybody, no one asked him to charge in and save somebody, no one looked to _him_ for the answers.

He was just a Lackey. A nobody who had been called in to the World's Strongest.

It was strangely… _relieving_.

He was…free.

There was no expectations to drown in, no demands beyond physical labor and even that…well he'd been doing that since he was old enough to understand orders, so what did this matter?

It had been a slow process to be sure, something Skull hadn't realized had happened until his protective instincts kicked in.

War…war had effects on people. Hermione had once said he had a 'saving people thing'. She had been right once. He used to have that, the urge to stand up for those who needed it- _whoever_ needed it.

War changed that. Skull had learned the hard _dirty_ way that there was no saving everyone. So he shifted his focus.

He was _vicious_ about protecting what was his. He couldn't save everyone, so he saved _his_ people. Protected them.

He almost laughed all those years later when he learned about Cloud Flames. He was an Inverted Cloud meaning some Classic Cloud characteristics flipped. For example- Skull liked contact (he suspected this came from his childhood at the Dursley's house and all the negative attention he received) but only from those he _chose_. As a Cloud he didn't react well if strangers tried getting close. Another example- Clouds were _stubborn_ \- usually about everything. Their way or the highway. Skull was willing to compromise if there was a compelling reason though he still had that steel spine most Clouds were known for when it was needed. Something else that Skull differed from with most Clouds- most Clouds had territory that they guarded for most this was a town. Skull didn't have any sort of happy memories attached to his home in England so Skull's territory tended to be _people._

Not in the sense that he owned them, Skull would never even think about claiming to own anybody- he was a _Cloud_ and _all_ Clouds no matter where they fell on the scale valued their freedom above all things. (This, Skull knew, was especially true for him after he realized how he had been lead around by the nose when he was younger.)

No- people that Skull claimed as _his_ found that they had a _**vicious**_ protector when the need arose. Someone who would guide them if it was needed but was most content to walk at their side, only stepping in front of them if it was to shield them, or behind them to block the unseen dagger aimed for the throat.

Skull had what amounted to a network of informants, and he used them to stay three steps ahead of those who meant to harm _his_ people.

This too, was a mark of war.

Skull was paranoid. Most couldn't tell just looking at him, not with the over the top antics he tended to use, they dismissed him as a threat dismissed him as a _fool_ , but he really was. It wasn't paranoia if they were really out to get you, and Skull (Harry) had quite the number of people who wanted him dead or captured after the war. Some because they were remnants of the war and others because they wanted their General.

But Skull?

He was a **Cloud** and he would go where he _chose_.


	3. Chapter 3

The day Skull realizes he had claimed the Arcobaleno as _his_ starts rather nicely.

There's a nice breeze out, there's just enough cloud cover to be sunny but not overbearing, the Arcobaleno had gathered together, and for once it's going well for everyone, it's productive.

Skull is antsy as hell.

Every instinct he has is screaming at him.

Some of 'Harry' bleeds through into Skull.

He's tense and quiet. Anything he says is stilted and it's obvious he's not really paying attention. His eyes dart from place to place, and he keeps his back to the wall with all the windows and doors in sight. He's ready for just about anything.

He's also drawing attention to himself, but he doesn't care right now because _something is wrong_.

All he needs to do is find it.

So he ignores the eyes of the other Arcobaleno staring him down.

He looks for threats instead.

This focus on everyone and everything _else_ means that he doesn't notice when the Arcobaleno stop talking, doesn't notice when Colonnello and Reborn reach for him and he automatically slips through their hands. (He had never dodged their hands before- only bullets and weapons and such)

He notices them first.

It's something that had to be _trained_ into the body- relaxing at the sight of danger. It not only puts the people who are causing the danger off center, but it allows for greater reaction on Skull's side. It's an assassin thing- hitmen are usually the one's that do this, but Skull had learned this trick _years_ before he had even heard of the Mafia.

He slides to his feet, never letting his eyes focus on the people he had finally pinpointed as the source of his unease for more than a fraction of a second.

He doesn't notice how his movements have put the Arcobaleno on guard. They were the best of the best- they recognized the way Skull went from quiet, scanning everything to that near invisible fraction of a second miss-it-if-you-blink stillness followed quickly by his body relaxing into a ready-for-anything causal-at-a-glance stance.

They had never seen these instincts and movements from their Cloud, but this was Skull (no one else had Cloud Flames like his, no one could fake them so they knew it was their Cloud) and they trusted him even if he was what they considered the 'weak link'. They responded to all the nonverbal cues he was giving off by mimicking them- their bodies relaxing into that ready state, their eyes casually sweeping the area for what was setting their Cloud off.

It upsets more than a few of them that they _don't see_ whatever Skull sees. (And they know it's something serious which makes it worse.)

Skull heads for the bar. The route there takes him past the table the people he's watching are sitting at.

He's glad it's not too crowded, a few groups scattered through the bar (most had fled upon seeing the Arcobaleno come in) and not much else.

He is expecting it when as he passes the table, a hand darts out. He's expecting it when they grip his wrist and try to jerk him around to attack him. He is expecting the other hand reaching for his head.

Skull lashes out fast, hard and war trained. The one to grab his wrist goes down easily the palm strike to his nose killing him instantly. The other man dodges and steps back away from Skull, lashing out himself.

Skull expects that too.

He doesn't _quite_ expect the wand.

Skull focuses on it like the threat it is and he is unaware of the way his face has twisted in a way none of the Arcobaleno have ever seen- rage and pain and _how-dare-you_ and a bit of horror ( _he was done- he wasn't Harry why were they here_ _ **why were they here**_ ) and a smidgen of fear because _he did not want to go back_.

He forgets the Arcobaleno are there for a moment.

He forgets, but they see.

They see the rage (that had never shown up on their Cloud's face before) they see the pain ( _who was this son of a bitch to cause pain to their Cloud_ Only they were allowed to do that and never like this _)_ they see the horror (and the man's grave just keeps getting deeper- that had never shown up on their Cloud's face before either- not like that. Not actual horror) but the fear…the _fear_ so unlike the fear he showed them, this fear that said he didn't know what was coming and he was scared of it- _that_ pissed them all off.

And then the man lifts his wand and suddenly Skull remembers the Arcobaleno are behind him and then _Skull_ is gone and in his place is Harry Potter Man-Who-Conquered and he's _angry_. And it's a bit different then when he was younger in the sense that his rage burns cold, his eyes have narrowed, and Cloud Flames are flickering over his skin from his hands up his arms to his shoulders, and he's _focused_ in the way only war can teach you.

The Arcobaleno freeze.

They had known their Cloud for just about 33 years. They had _**never**_ seen him angry like this. They had never seen the temper all Clouds were known for having in _**their**_ Cloud. The fact that this man- whoever he is- has pissed off not just an Inverted Cloud but _Skull_ to the point that his Flames flicker over his arms up to his shoulders is telling.

They can't quite manage to explain how Skull seemed to have _grown_ 6feet his presence swelling and filling the room and his shadow- a left over from the curse, something their _flames_ actually cause now not a curse- flickers and stretches. ( _That_ had never happened with Skull either- their shadow flicking- a sign of extreme emotion- nor the stretching which was a sign of _rage_ )

Skull gives the man one warning- simply because he knows the Arcobaleno are behind him and he doesn't want them to see this in him- _**"Get out."**_

The man doesn't listen. He fires a Bombarda instead.

Skull's Flames blind everyone in the room when they flare in response and no one, no one but Viper can sense the Magic that flares with them, but they all hear the low guttural snarl that escapes their Cloud, the sound of splintering wood and a choked off wheeze.

When their eyes clear of the purple afterimages, the man is staring at nothing, his eyes wide and unseeing despite the fact that he's still blinking and it's something they had only ever seen after Viper destroyed somebodies mind, but this time it's _Skull_ leaning over the body of the braindead man.

Skull had dived into the man's head to see why he was there.

What he finds isn't good.

It makes him angry.

He erupts into a purple bonfire of Flames and _snarls_.


	4. Chapter 4

… **.It's not even four chapters in and I almost have 100 Reviews.**

 **WHAT?!**

 **Like. I blinked and it just- BOOM there it was.**

 **Thank you** _ **so**_ **much. (seriously like-what?)**

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He drops the man like he burns and whirls for the door. He doesn't notice the man he dropped being _burned_ into ash by his Flames and his Magic behind him. He sees the Arcobaleno frozen behind him, but he's so angry it doesn't actually register that they've seen him, that they've seen the Man-Who-Conquered that lived in his mind. It doesn't register that they have seen him as a soldier as a member of a war (even if they don't know that is what they have seen) that they have seen his instincts wake up and take over.

He needed to know _why_ so he had found out.

Snape hadn't taught him much of anything all those years ago, but Skull remembered how he had attacked his mind, ripped any shield he had made into shreds, how he had dived into memories and how much it had hurt.

He had learned how to _attack_ a mind. How to dive into someone's head and find what he needed. He'd done it accidentally all those years ago when he had snapped back and attacked Snape's head. When he had found that memory of his father being a bully. He had succeeded where _Voldemort_ had failed, had gotten into the man's head- even if had only been for an instant- as a _novice_ someone who hadn't even known it was _possible_ to dive into someone's head even a week before.

It hadn't been much of a surprise when- due to the war- Harry had dove into _really_ learning the art of the mind- shielding and attacking it and had been really, _really_ good at it. He hadn't wanted to physically torture anyone for information he had needed- it hadn't stopped the necessity of it before, and Harry had done what he needed to survive, but learning _had_ prevented the majority of any physical torture for information he had had to do. (It hadn't stopped it, hadn't stopped the nightmares after, hadn't stopped him from throwing up the first few times, hadn't stopped him from feeling _sick_ every time, and _especially_ hadn't stopped him from getting _really, really_ good at it so he wouldn't have to take too long, but it had helped)

(It was also the reason Skull was good enough to keep _Viper_ out of his head why even she had not known of his past as Harry, any mist user that had tried it had never succeeded in getting anything Skull hadn't wanted to be found, because if Harry wanted to get the information he needed he would have to attack the minds of the very best- which meant he had to be better so he had been and still was)

His hands are shaking, but Skull doesn't notice as he stops out the door. He doesn't notice the bottles and glasses he walks by shaking so hard they crack, doesn't notice the lights all shattering in his wake, doesn't notice windows vibrating as he passes, doesn't notice how the door flies open before he touches it, doesn't notice how he's leaving actual footprints in the floors where he walks or how after he clears the door the Arcobaleno unfreeze and lunge after him.

He keeps walking. All he can think is that he needs to get away so he can lose it, so he can have a moment to _feel_ so he can work through it before he has to leave and fix it all. All he can think is _"Not here, not yet. Steady…steady. Wait."_

His hands are still shaking.

He had been _done_.

They had tracked him down. They wanted Their General. They wanted _Harry_.

 _He was Skull now_.

But they wanted the _Man-Who-Conquered_.

He had left it all behind, all the memories, all the rage, all the pain, all the _expectations_.

And they had still found him. Still expected Harry to lead the charge and he _couldn't do this again_. He _couldn't_ but he _must_.

His breath hitched.

 _ **He was so angry.**_

Skull makes it to the forest further up the road away from the bar he had left and he keeps walking, the Arcobaleno on his heels (not that Skull notices this in his state. Not when he had long ago stopped considering any of them an actual threat to his life, and as such stopped registering them as threats and instead recognized them as friends so he doesn't automatically lash out at them). He keeps moving until he finds a clearing where Skull hits his knees and _**screams**_.

His Magic and his Flames flare and seethe around him, filling the entire clearing and causing the Arcobaleno to stagger at the pressure in the tree-line.

He screams because he had left Them, he had been done, he had been _healing_ and They had called him back. He screams because he had seen that They would _force_ him back. He screams because he is a Cloud and _They_ _are_ _**chaining**_ _him_. He screams because the memories are all rushing back and it's _too much_ and _he can't_. He screams to cover up the screams of the dying he can hear in his head. He screams so he can't hear the voices of friends and family screaming in his memories. He screams so he doesn't cry. He screams so he does not destroy the forest around him.

He screams because right now, right now he is not Skull, he is not the Man-Who-Conquered, he is just Harry and he is being called to stand in the front lines again.

He screams because he knows he cannot escape Their call.

He screams because he can _feel_ the chains snapping onto his _soul_ and it _hurts._ No Cloud is ever meant to be chained, to have their freedom taken away and that is what had happened.

In the moment it had taken Skull to look into the wizard's mind he had seen it all laid out.

There would be no escape for him.

And it makes him _**rage**_.

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The Arcobaleno had followed after their Cloud as soon as he left. There was no doubt they would follow him, especially after seeing his reactions to whatever he had found.

The Arcobaleno see his hands shaking as he walks. They notice how he has suppressed his Flames as much as he can. They notice how despite that his Flames are _writhing_ under his control.

They can see his hands shaking harder as he goes.

Then Skull reaches the clearing.

They are seconds from following him into it, when his Flames snap out from under his control alongside something else, something only Viper recognizes as very powerful magic and the entire clearing is scorched under their Cloud's Flames.

But that doesn't hold their attention for long.

No.

Not even a fraction of a second, because almost as soon as that wave of power presses in on them and forces them to stop, Skull **screams**.

It's unlike anything they had ever heard from their Cloud.

It's _wrong_.

He screams and he _keeps screaming_ and it's _**painful**_ to hear.

It is rage and pain and hurt. It is denial and disgust and horror. It is _soul searing_ to hear from their Cloud.

Almost like Skull's very soul is being shredded apart.

It sets them all on edge, fans the instincts that come with being Elements in the same Sky that whisper to protect each other to blazing infernos.

This is nothing like hearing Skull scream when Reborn or Colonnello push him around, nothing like all the times Skull has thrown fits about one thing or another, nothing like anything they had ever heard from Skull before.

 _This_ is something that their Cloud feels down to his soul that is _tearing_ into him.

Skull is lost to his rage-pain-anger as the Arcobaleno all move to circle the clearing he is knelt in.

He doesn't notice at first as each Arcobaleno raises their Flames higher and higher from their places circling around him. He doesn't notice as all the colors of the rainbow join his violet in the clearing. He is oblivious to each type slithering through the mass of writhing Cloud to reach him.

He is unaware of the way his own Flames are responding to his fellow Elements reaching for him, unaware of the way his Flame output is slowly shrinking down and allowing the Arcobaleno closer to his kneeling form.

He doesn't notice when the violet Flames fade enough that the Arcobaleno can reach him.

He has stopped screaming at this point and is now hunched over himself, his forehead not quite touching the ground as he heaves for breath.

The Arcobaleno still.

Their Cloud looks like the weight of the world is crushing him to the floor, like something has pressed down on his back heavy and hard enough that he cannot stand under its weight.

That is concerning when they consider that not even discovering the Mafia, being pulled into the Mafia nor the Curse itself had caused _this_ in their Cloud.

Viper curses the fact that Skull had burned the body of that man-wizard into ash leaving her without a way to find answers as to _why_ their Cloud is hunched in on himself and why he had screamed like his very soul was seared. She cursed whoever had caused it. She is surprisingly fond of Skull, who will do favors for her without charge and pays her for favors with her favorite desserts all handmade, with gold, with small favors of his own. She rages that someone her Web had missed this, had allowed something through to harm their Cloud.

Verde had been ready to question Skull within an inch of his life after the scene in the bar. This was new information, a new facet in the Cloud, something to explore and map out. Seeing him like this…hearing the way he had screamed…Verde bites his tongue to stop the questions from pouring out. This was actually serious, something was _wrongwrongwrong_ he _didn't have all the variables_. He _needed_ them all to figure out how to proceed.

Fon had trained long and hard to become the 'eye' in his own Storm. He had spent endless hours training to keep his mind steady and clear even when he raged. He was one of those closest to Skull- he knew their Cloud, for where did the Storm he carried spring from but the Clouds themselves? Fon lifts a sleeve covered hand to block the frown on his face. He had planned to corner their Cloud and ask about his behavior at the bar after the meeting, but then all of _this_ happened and Fon had to set questions aside as he witnessed Skull bend in a way he had never seen before like he was being _crushed_. Fon had to take a breath to still the Storm inside.

Yuni was the Sky for the Arcobaleno now. She would never quite Harmonize with them the way Luce had, she was not their _true_ Sky, but the Sky they called home none the less. She _knew_ her Elements. She could _feel_ Skull's Flames and the way they raged. She could feel him could feel the way he withered under whatever he had found and for the first time she found she wanted to _rage_ at someone. (It didn't help that her visions kept shifting and changing too quickly for her to _see_ )

Reborn was a possessive kind of man. The people and things he claimed as _his_ were _**his**_ and he took care of them. Skull was _his_ Lackey the Cloud that shielded others from the Sun when it was too intense for everyone else or when the Sun needed to be dark for a moment Skull was the Cloud that his him away. They took care of each other in various (usually violent) ways, and that was an excepted thing between them. He had _**never**_ heard Skull scream like he was dying this way before, like something inside was being shredded away. He had never seen the Cloud allow his spine to bend under the weight of the world or lower his head this way and it set ever damn protective possessive instinct he had _ablaze_.

Lal was a soldier. She had been for most of her life. It was what she had wanted to do since she was little and a soldier had saved her and the kids that had been with her when she was young and on the streets. She had only ever heard a scream like the one Skull released _one time_. It was something she had hoped to never hear again. She knew this sound, what this scream meant. She had watched the soldier that released it wither away into a shell. Hearing it from their Cloud was jarring and unwelcome in the most _violent_ of ways.

Colonnello has seen a lot of things. Watching Skull- the _Lackey,_ _ **his**_ Lackey crumble like this? That was new, and Colonnello _did not_ like it. Skull was proud even if he didn't show it in ways most people would recognize. He had never bowed his spine or head in the face of anything. Oh he had flinched and screamed and flailed, but Colonnello had never seen his head bow or his spine bend. His Flames had always been a bonfire warm at their back and ready to flare in their defense. All the Arcobaleno had known this- he may be the weakest of them all but he was still the _seventh strongest_ in the world. There was a _reason_ the Arcobaleno- the Seven Strongest in the World- trusted Skull at their backs even if they had not treated him the best. Something had brought that bonfire first into a wildfire of rage and then to embers. Something had bowed their Cloud's spine, had brought his head down. Colonnello would _destroy it_.

Skull's eyes snap up from where he had bowed under the feeling of chains snapping into place on him, where he has bowed under the knowledge that he would _need_ to go back, where he has bowed under the knowledge that he is walking back to another war when he feels the soft hands of his Sky on his cheeks.

The sight of his eyes- dull-dying-desolate-pained- pushes the Arcobaleno further into their rage. They resolve to ask questions _after_ they have demolished whatever had been the cause of this in their Cloud.

"Skull-nii…? What happened?" Yuni asks softly.

Skull exhales shakily at the sight of his fellow Elements gathered around him.

He cannot tell them.

He cannot explain that he is to go to war again.

How could he possibly explain that he would be forced- _chained_ \- onto the front lines, asked to lead the charge to save Them again? How could he _explain_ that They were asking the ultimate sacrifice from him _again_? (Twice was not enough? They asked him for a _third_ sacrifice? _How dare they_ , but _especially_ how dare they give him no choice, how dare they **chain** him as they were?) How could he explain that the 'weakest link' amongst them was being called upon to take the crown of General once more? That he would need to make the hard decisions again.

How did he explain that every nightmare he had was coming to life once again? The nightmare of screaming friends, the phantom pains of the scars hidden under his makeup, gloves and suit? The memory of digging grave after grave for those he loved until only _he_ remained standing in the ashes? How could he explain that They would _hunt_ him until the end of time? How could he _explain_ that his presence amongst them threatened their safety with things they couldn't even _conceive of_ even with their experience with Flames? How did he explain the nightmare of having his place among them disturbed, of the fear that he presence would put them all in danger, that nightmare was _happening right now?_

How did he tell them he had lied to them all?


	5. Chapter 5

Skull took a shaky breath, closing his eyes and cradling Yuni's hand against his cheek for a moment. He wanted to tell her. He wanted to spill everything right then and there….but he wouldn't. After a moment he opens his eyes again and lifts them up to stare at the others, all of them hovering close by and looking rather angry.

He takes another moment to cradle Yuni's hand before taking a breath and closing his eyes once more.

When they open again, they're hard and steady in a way the Arcobaleno have never seen before. "I am sorry." He tells them, and he means it, he means it more than he will ever be able to convey accurately to them.

He knows they realize this when he sees them all lean back just a little, their eyes narrowing as they wonder what it is he is apologizing for.

A lot of things. For the lies, for the danger he has put them in….for the way he is going to leave them. For many things.

"I am sorry." He repeats it because he feels he needs to before he stands, his back unbending and straightening into a steel line, his eyes hard and jaded and dark with the memories he can't quite shove behind his barriers.

He scans the faces of his friends, of his _family_.

He'd searched for family for so, so long. Even before he had known he was searching. The Dursley family had been the start. He'd been three years old and couldn't understand why he was treated so differently from Dudley. And then the Wizarding World had given him hope- Ron and Hermione and the rest of Ron's family….it had all been shattered during the war. They had all perished in the war aside from Bill, Fleur, Charlie and George. Harry had left with their blessings and he still kept in contact with the four of them-because they had seen what the pressure the Wizarding World was doing to him. (Destroying his soul)

He hadn't found out until later that part of the suffocating feeling was that he was a Cloud and he had been caged. All he had known was it had been smothering his spirit and he had left.

Potter Luck had attacked with a vengeance after that.

All the things he had done in the war had strengthened his Flames. He knew now he'd been using them and causing them to grow even more thinking it was just another part of his magic. No one in the Wizarding World had realized it either, thinking it was just some sort of wandless or accidental magic that manifested in purple flame-like magic. Either way it had made his Cloud Flames the strongest in the entire world and so Checkerface had come to him and offered him a job. Something had whispered to take it-that job. He'd thought it would be a good distraction from the war.

Next thing he knew he was sitting in a room with the World's Strongest and being thrown headfirst into the Mafia.

But he had found family while he flailed with this new world.

He refused to see this family be lost to another war as he had watched the Weasleys be whittled down to three and one by marriage.

He couldn't see it. He couldn't go through it again. He would shatter like fragile glass. So he would leave them. "I need to go."

He whirled around and strode away.

A hand clamped down on his shoulder.

The _only_ thing that saved Reborn from the war honed response of violence so close to the surface after what he had seen and what he would need to do, was the fact that Skull knew it was Reborn. He still tensed up. "Reborn." His voice was soft but hard with warning and command.

 _He refused to allow these people to get involved._

"Let go." His voice was soft but diamond hard and he felt Reborn's hand tighten for a moment.

"Lackey…" Reborn growled.

Violet eyes turned his way and pinned Reborn in place with the rage and pain in their depths. It took Reborn a moment to realize that Skull's eyes were glowing with his Flames.

(He ignores the memory of Skull jokingly referring to this as the Lantern Warning System)

That was bad news. It meant that something was pushing Skull into dangerous levels of rage and managing to prod at the instincts that came with being a Cloud at the same time.

Clouds were the second rarest Flame Type after Sky. They were rare because most didn't survive into teen years much less adulthood, mainly because they were possessive little fucks and were perfectly willing to get into the face of anyone who stood in their way. Most of these Clouds would eventually run into someone who was stronger than them and they'd keep going back for more until they won or were dead. Other Clouds were found by Families and recruited due to the status boost that came with having a Cloud following the Family. Some were lucky- like Hibari- and were recruited properly so they wanted to be there. Others were forced into serving the Family and would die trying to escape or would be smothered to death. No Cloud could be chained. They _needed_ freedom like they needed air. If a Cloud was 'chained' somewhere for too long it would smother them and they would go out in a blaze of rage and death. The stronger a Cloud was the worse it would be.

Something had stepped all over Skull's instincts. "What happened?"

Skull took a breath.

He wanted to be selfish.

Just once, he wanted to do what _he_ wanted.

He knew he could wipe the memories away from the Arcobaleno, that he could make it so they didn't even know anything was wrong. He knew he could make the whole issue go away, but he _didn't want to_. He'd already lied to them about his past, Skull _refused_ to play with their minds the way he had played with Death Eaters and Ministry workers.

He _refused_.

These were his family members staring at him. You _didn't do that_ to family. He didn't want to do that to them.

So told them a part of the truth, his eyes blazing violet as his anger grew " _They_ took something that is _mine_ and I will ensure it _**never happens again**_." Skull pulled his shoulder away from Reborn and begins to walk away again.

O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~

The Arcobaleno's eyes widen.

They had long ago realized that Skull was a Cloud that claimed _people_ as his territory.

The pieces they had been given rearranged in their head, snapping to form another picture entirely of the situation.

Skull was angry in a way they had never seen before.

Skull was angry enough to break that man in the bar.

'They' had taken something Skull considered 'his'.

Skull was in a towering rage even now, and he was leaving to 'deal' with it.

So that left them with the knowledge that someone had taken someone their Cloud considered important and had either hurt them or killed them. They remembered the way he screamed.

 _Had some fucker killed someone important to Skull?_

O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~

Skull takes the moment the Arcobaleno are absorbing what he has told them to stride away from them. Each step is painful and he can feel as Skull slips away and The-Man-Who-Conquered rises from the ashes.

That's painful too.

All the more reason to ensure he is never called upon again.

The sneer that pulls at his lips is worthy of his old Potions Professor at his finest.

They had taken George and Bill and Fleur to lure him in. That man-wizard in the bar had had it all in his mind, laid out in near little plans. Skull knew what they planned now, what was happening and what they wanted from him and how far they were willing to go to _get_ it.

Fair enough.

Harry had learned quite a few new tricks since the last time the Wizarding World had seen him. The Wizarding World was about to get one hell of a wakeup call about their _'Savior.'_

They were about to meet _Skull_ and these _bastards_ would quickly learn just how far a Cloud, how far _Skull_ was willing to go to defend what was _his_.

There was only one thing Skull forgot to factor in.

Just how far the other _Arcobaleno_ were willing to go for _family._

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 **Sorry this is long but first:**

 **I'm addressing something that a few people have worried about here: Why doesn't Skull just say 'screw it' and walk away from or kill the wizards?**

Conditioning.

 **He's a badass make no mistake but he's been conditioned since the moment he understood words and actions to** _do as he's told_ **(Dursley family) then he gets to the Wizards and he's told he's** _their 'savior'_ **and pulled into one mess after another where he's pushed into the role. When he tires of this, after a war, he gets pulled into the Mafia and the other Arcobaleno who all unknowingly expanded on that conditioning** to 'do as your told and fit into our mold for you' **(Lackey. Weakest link.) All the while he hasn't really dealt with any of the issues that come from being a war survivor from the front lines.**

 **And now? Now it's all shoved in his face again. It's instinct at this point.**

 **There are other reasons but this plays a huge part in it.**

 **Hope that cleared some questions up, the rest will most likely show up as we go.**

 **Also: little late but Happy New Year! And THANK YOU FOR THE REVIEWS ALMOST 150 WHAT HAPPENED GUYS? And Guest reviewer Reader: thanks so much**


	6. Chapter 6

**Alan Rickman has passed away…David Bowie as well…They will be missed. Here's to some of my favorite singers/actors.**

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Skull leaves the Arcobaleno behind, storming from the clearing, his mind whirling through what he has learned and what his response is going to be.

The Arcobaleno don't follow after him.

Not because they don't _want_ to follow him, but because they don't realize exactly what is happening.

As far as they know Skull is only dealing with Mafia. He may be the 'weakest' of the Arcobaleno, but he is still an Arcobaleno. They trust him to look after himself, trust that he doesn't need their help. They trust that as a Cloud raging in defense of something that is considered _'his'_ he may even take offense if he is denied his chance to rage at the cause.

They don't know about the war Skull had lead.

They don't know about magic.

They don't know about the different factions fighting to cage their Cloud into their roles for him.

They don't know that Skull is marching back into a mess that has centered around their Cloud since he was eleven years old.

Not yet.

O~O~O~O~

Skull's reentrance to the Wizarding World is smooth and subtle. He doesn't rage in despite his intense desire to just _burn_ it all down around him until he found his Wizarding family.

Harry would have. Harry would have raged across Diagon Alley, like lightning and fire leaving shattered windows and crumbled stone in his wake.

Not Skull though.

Skull has learned better, has learned patience and the art of information gathering. Has learned to wait and strike later. He has learned the art of sabotage. He has learned to think like an assassin. His rage will be more like the wrath of the gods.

His hair was naturally violet now- right alongside his eyes from a magical accident while using Cloud Flames (not that anyone knows this since the accident had happened after he left the Wizarding World and before Checkface- they think it is dye and Skull lets them since it fits Skull's 'flamboyant flashy attitude' after all.) He leaves his hair as it is- let the wizards think he is just a metamorphmagus wandering the alley. He does wear colored contacts however- his eyes now appear to be black and he leaves his punk style clothes on- black leather, combat boots, piercings and all.

He's as far from 'Harry Potter' as could be as far as any wizard looking his way is concerned.

Fools.

His gain though.

Skull spends the next week slinking around in plain sight gathering more in-depth information on the Wizarding World's movements since he had been away. He had never _not_ kept an eye on them. They wanted to cage him after all so Skull has watched from afar, but that wasn't the same as up close and personal information gathering.

He learns in this first week of the Neo-Eaters. New Death Eaters. Death Eaters being trained to move around in political situations rather than out in the open. He learns of the subtly passed laws, the racism and bigotry more carefully hidden, the prettied up lies. He learns of shadow tactics, of the 'accidents'. The _war_ taking place in the shadows and alley ways hidden from the public eye.

It's much harder to pass the blatantly racist laws and actions out in the open after the war with Riddle. The people trying to manage it have to be cunning and sneaky and rather good at prettying up anything they want passed so it doesn't appear to be anything but equal treatment.

He learns of the subtle way Purebloods are managing to suppress the Muggleborns. Learns of the things slipping under the radar because the laws are not read carefully enough. He learns of the few that have noticed and are fighting to stop it. He learns of the dark and dirty way people are having 'accidents' of the increase in 'disappearances'.

He learns of the fear the Neo-Eaters have of him. Their knowledge that 'Harry Potter' would have fought viciously against this. Their knowledge that Harry would have _noticed_ and pointed it out. Their knowledge that if _Harry Potter Man-Who-Conquered_ spoke against them, against any of them, the people would listen and their powerbase would crumble. That all the work they had managed in his absence would be for _nothing_.

He learned that the people fighting against the Neo-Eaters _knew_ this. That this 'Neo-Order' had been searching for him endlessly even as they fought the Neo-Eaters. That they wanted a leader the people would rally behind.

He learned that this Order had been constantly going to George, Bill and Fleur to learn his whereabouts, to learn anything they could use and that by doing so had lead the Neo-Eaters right to their doorstep.

He learned the three had been taken and no one had told Charlie who was still in Romania.

Harry may have had a saving-people-thing, but _Skull_ did not.

He saved _his_ people and no one else.

Harry may have rallied against the Neo-Eaters and led the charge against them, may have fought in the shadows against what Skull recognizes as assassinations and hits, but _Skull_ , Skull who had just learned that all his work as Harry, all his suffering, all his **loss,** all his blood and tears, his _death_ and his revival had been for _nothing_ , that the people were following along like _sheep_ as the Neo-Eaters led them to a Pureblood Supremacy era Harry had fought so hard against, that the Order that fought against them had not only _failed_ to stop it from happening, but _split_ _their attention_ between the issue and looking for him to do it for them…

The fact that they had not only looked for him to solve their problems, but they had _led the enemy_ to his **family** meant that Skull _would not_.

It meant that Skull would do nothing more than _**burn**_ the issue in front of him away. He would make sure his wizarding family was safe, he would _**demolish**_ the Neo-Eaters that had taken his family, and then he would make sure the entire Wizarding World never called on him again _**even if he had to destroy them all**_.

Skull may have helped a bit before leaving out of a twisted sense of duty, because it had _always_ been him to clean up the messes of the Wizarding World as they were placed in his path ever since he had been eleven years old, may have helped because of the memory of his first friends, but these people had placed his family straight in the middle of their mess, placed their lives in danger and he _knew_ Fleur was pregnant with another little one...and that changed things for Skull.

Everyone had a limit. Everyone had a line they drew in the sand. Everyone had a place where they would fight back.

It didn't matter if they had been abused or beaten down, it didn't matter if they stood at the top of the food chain. It didn't matter if they were in perfect health, if they had broken both legs and were bleeding all over the ground. It didn't matter if they were the biggest serial killer to have walked the earth or the kindest man or women to be born, who had never said a bad word about anyone. Conditioning didn't matter, morals didn't matter; laws didn't matter.

None of that mattered in the long run. _**Everyone**_ had a moment where they had _**enough**_ , everyone had a moment where they would lash out, everyone had something that would shove them over the knife edge they balanced on. Everyone had a line in the sand that should _not_ be crossed.

Everyone had a snapping point.

Skull's was finding out his family was in the hands of people who fought like the mafia- who murdered in the shadows and manipulated the political side in the light.

He'd been immersed in the Mafia long enough, had survived a whole war on the front lines, been surrounded by the world's very best killers long enough that Skull was not opposed to the idea of simply taking the problem out at the roots if provided a suitable reason to do so. Threatening the few family members he had left in the world, those that had walked the path of war time by his side or those who walked the shadows of the Mafia at his side was _plenty_ of reason.

These Neo-Eaters?

This Neo-Order?

Harry may have fought them, but Skull…Skull was an assassin. He was an assassin who had drawn a line in the sand and had it trampled on and over.

And he would not give them a third chance at his family to get at him.

O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~

 **I wanted to give you a glimpse into Skull/Harry's brain. And Hibari-Muse stopped me here. Everything I added after felt wrong and forced or choppy.**

 **I've broken 150 Reviews- Thank you so, so much you guys. It's humbling how much you all respond to this. How much you all seem to enjoy this. I want you to know how much I appreciate each and every one of the Favs and Alerts and Reviews. They mean the world you guys- thanks again.**


	7. Chapter 7

**-Whispering- I have over 270 reviews. I have** almost 300 reviews **…..Thank you guys so much! And to one of my Guest Reviewers- Very well done! You edging in the right direction with your comments!**

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His second week….his second week in the Wizarding World was spent searching out the exact members of each party, their numbers, their homes, their views, their actions and lack of action…he researched each member as thoroughly as he could manage.

He missed the Arcobaleno- it would go much faster with them at his side, but he would not drag them into his war. Not to mention the fact that the Arcobaleno had _**no**_ experience with magic and all the things it would allow a wizard or witch to manage. It was a _much_ more…flexible…sort of medium when compared to Flames. He had no doubt at all that they would adapt, that they would dominate a fight with any magic folk given the proper amount of time and training but…

Skull didn't have the time to teach them. His family was in danger _now_. The only other people Skull may have trusted aside from himself to prepare the Arcobaleno for fighting magic users were the people he was going in to rescue.

So he would act alone.

Besides. Skull _really_ wanted to maim the people who had dared to touch his family himself. He knew himself enough to know he'd get… _twitchy_ if anyone tried to get in the way of that.

So his second week was spent using a combination of all the magic and habits he had learned during the war, and all the tricks and trades he had learned during his 33 years in the mafia gathering information on his targets. Old habits and knowledge sliding easily to the surface to blend with the newer ones.

Skull didn't think he'd _ever_ forget the things he had learned to be and do on a warfront. It had always been there, ruthlessly suppressed in the presence of the Arcobaleno, but here and now Skull was marching into war as a one-man-army and it was as easy as breathing to slide back into old habits made all the more deadly by his stint in the mafia.

Week three….week three was the beginning of the end for the wizards- not that they realized it at first.

Week three was where Skull began to slide and slink through the shadows taking people out of the picture _permanently_. He left a bright violet colored tribal looking cloud motif on the walls for them to find at each site.

Skull wasn't one to brag about kills or anything, but he did it for two reasons.

The first: he wanted the wizards to whisper about it, he wanted the news of someone taking out Neo-Eaters and leaving _that_ mark behind to spread. His family would know what it meant. They would hear about it- hopefully- and know he was coming.

The second…

The second was purely from his Cloud instincts. He wanted these people to _**know**_ he was coming for them. He wanted them to _**know**_ he had been the one to do it- even if they didn't know who he was yet or _why_ he was doing what he was doing. He wanted the Neo-Eaters to _**panic**_ as their numbers slowly diminished, as it hit them that _**all of them**_ would be hunted down no matter where they went or what defenses were placed in his way.

Inverted Clouds were _much_ more dangerous to anger then their Classic brethren. The whole mafia world whispered of the Classic's rage, the destruction they left in their footsteps.

This is because Classic Clouds raged in and demolished everything in their path in the way of whatever target had roused the anger. They left survivors. Inverted Clouds…were different. They had a much longer fuse, so when something _**did**_ managed to set them off, Inverted Clouds didn't rage. They _Plotted_. They were meticulous. They hunted their prey down, stalked in from the shadows before lashing out.

Classic Clouds were natural disasters. They left an impression, people saw them coming and were demolished if they did not leave the line of fire. It was possible to whether the storm if they were not the main target of a Classic's rage so people were left in the path of their destruction and were able to spread warnings to others. Inverted Clouds were predators. They _hunted._ No one was left untouched. They would hunt every single person and piece involved with their target down and, if they saw a reason, _destroy_ them. No one was left to whisper warnings about the Inverted Cloud when they were done.

Skull was going _hunting_.

O~O~O~O~O~O~O~

Skull relished in the panic of the Neo-Eaters.

He knew they didn't suspect _Harry Potter_ to be the one whittling their numbers down. (Harry was the ' _savior_ ' after all- a bright and shining war hero and perfect example of a Light Wizard who would _never_ sink to _killing_ them this way) This has the benefit of ensuring his family wasn't threatened and that his family was being moved with the surviving members. He knew that. They had left him their own signs in the rooms they had been held in. He had just ripped information from the minds of the Neo-Eaters he found and jumped from base to base, carving his way through them so he knew where to look when he got there, and he recognized that his family was still alive and knew he was coming for them.

Good.

If his family had been harmed…well.

It would have gotten _**much worse**_ for the Neo-Eaters.

It doesn't even cross his mind that he hadn't called or checked in with any of the Arcobaleno since he had stormed away. He doesn't think about how he has fallen into war patterns. He doesn't think about the last time he actually ate, or the last time he had slept more than an hour for every 9 he was active.

He doesn't pause to think beyond the knowledge required to take out everything Neo-Eater in his path, and keep himself in fighting condition.

Considering the circumstances of what Skull considered 'Fighting Condition' and what he had faced in the past with worse than he was doing to himself, Skull wasn't really taking care of himself as he should.

It wasn't effecting his warpath across the British Magical Community (without magic _or_ Flames so he wouldn't draw the Ministry or Vindice to his location- just old fashioned straight up killing) in the slightest.

So Skull just kept going.

It's only a matter of time before the Potter Luck strikes again and something goes wrong.

This turns out to be in the middle of a highly warded mansion of one of the 'earth shakers' in the Neo-Eater party. One of the members that really knew what they were doing, who pushed through the laws and legislature so cleverly worded and twisted to the Neo-Eater's agenda that the mafia man in Skull would appreciate it, would admire how no one was the wiser in any other situation.

It just so happens that this fucker had targeted some of his, and Skull had a track record of toppling regimes that targeted his people.

Skull gets in without issue, and even succeeds in killing the majority of the people in the mansion aligned with the Neo-Eaters without alerting anybody. (He takes a few dives into the Neo-Eaters' heads as well to pull more information from them)

The issue pops up when he walks straight into a _meeting_.

It was the kind of thing only a Potter would have happen to them. (Skull was of the opinion that somewhere in the past a very, _**very**_ powerful Chinese magical had cursed his family line 'May you live in interesting times')

It erupts into a fight immediately.

In the end Skull kills everyone in the mansion before they can alert anyone, but not before the earth shaker himself, the Neo-Eater who would have died 108 times over in the first five minutes if he had not kept using others as meat shields, was the one to land a glancing blow.

It turned out to be all that was needed to cause problems as Potter Luck kicked in a second time. (God it was Second Year all over again.)


	8. Chapter 8

Skull cursed in every language he knew.

He had no idea what the hell the curse the Neo-Eater hit him with actually _was_ , but it was making him bleed almost too fast for his Flames to keep up with the blood loss and it resisted every use of magic he had tried against it. The curse had opened multiple wounds over his body and caused him to bleed faster than should be humanly possible. Trying to close the wounds by multiplying his own skin cells with Flames (after magic had failed to help) had caused the curse to not only _reopen_ the wound but open up _two more_.

He'd been multiplying his own blood cells since near the exact moment the curse had managed a glancing graze of a wound against him, not even much of a nick, but it had been all it had needed to rip open what looked like four inch long deep knife wounds in multiple places. His Flames were the only reason he was still breathing- unlike the _fool_ to have cast the damn thing. (He wished he could have taken his time with that particular kill, but blood loss meant he needed to be quick and get out, especially since he _couldn't heal himself_ )

His magic didn't work against it, and his Flames were too busy frantically keeping him alive to do anything to help him after that initial attempt. (Not that he would since direct application of his Flames to the area only seemed to make more curse-wounds.)

Skull couldn't go to a normal hospital with a curse-afflicted wound and he couldn't go to St. Mungo's or he'd be recognized and detained 'for his own good'. But he _needed_ help- he was woozy and lightheaded and nauseous- and if he passed out before he got help there would be no saving him.

That leaves the Arcobaleno.

He's angry about it- he hadn't wanted them involved _at all_ and this will absolutely get them involved (violently too- Skull had long ago learned that while the Arcobaleno might push him around, yell and hit, they were the _**only**_ ones allowed to do so as far as they were concerned) but Skull _needs_ the help.

He curses some more even as he staggers.

" _No choice."_

The thought crosses his mind even as he prepares to use his depleted magic. It's not working against the curse- whatever it was- but he could still apparate.

It's hard to focus through the blood loss he's suffering from even with his Flames working overtime to replace the blood but he's Skull. He's Skull, he's Harry Potter and he has determination enough to topple entire governments if he wants so he apparates.

His landing is less than graceful and he crashes into the ground with a shudder, his vision greying out alarmingly, but he hasn't lost any body parts. That was good. He didn't need anything else on his person to start bleeding while these curse wounds were in effect.

He knows the Arcobaleno are heading his way even if he can't see them yet. His arrival would sound like a gunshot. That would draw them in like nothing else. (Even if they were all good enough to know it didn't sound like any gun they had ever heard before)

Which was good.

Skull didn't think he could get his weak limbs to push himself back to his feet.

O~O~O~O~

The Arcobaleno are on edge and angry.

Skull had stormed away after that fateful day where he had lost control of his Flames _weeks_ ago and they had heard nothing from their Cloud since.

That wasn't _normal_.

Skull was a worrier when it came to people he cared for, he demanded updates from all of them when they left their main base of operations for any sort of job. The Arcobaleno had only ever needed to see _one_ incident where Verde had failed to call in to decide to _never_ break the tradition again.

It was all the confirmation they had needed to know the infamous Cloud temper _did_ in fact lurk within their Cloud and was just as impressive as the rumors claimed (if not more so). Skull had started the habit, but it had spread amongst each other so that they kept their eyes on each other through these quick messages and updates.

It had become an ironclad rule with them- they updated each other via texts when they went out on missions, when they arrived and when they were on the way back. Plus periodic check-ins in-between or they told the others that 'radio silence' was required.

Over three weeks without a word from their Cloud and no sign of him raging anywhere in the Mafia world and they were all antsy and on edge and _angry._ Looking for him turned up nothing, calling got voicemail, searching for him did no good. (And _**when**_ had Skull gotten so good at hiding that _**they**_ couldn't find him when they wanted to?)

So that left the question: _where was he?_

The sound of a single shot of gunfire (it's off somehow, it's not quite gunfire and they all _know_ it, but it definitely isn't the sound of a car backfiring and _no one_ should be able to get that close to their home without alerting them unless they were really, really good. The only other thought for them is gunfire) gets their attention. It doesn't even cross Viper's mind that this could be apparation because who did she know that was magical and able to get onto the property?

They slide through the property like the shadows in firelight. Quick and soundless, flickering from place to place from pure speed, there and then gone in a blink.

They all still when they see the origin of the sound.

There's a sense of disbelief, of horror, but no sound. Their eyes are glued to the sight, and not one of the Arcobaleno even _breathe_ for a moment.

He hadn't checked in, but not once, _never_ once had **any** of them thought that _this_ may be the reason Skull hadn't checked in with them.

If they had thought for even a _fraction_ of a second that their Cloud was being hurt in any way they would have burned the world in their search for him.

(They shove the horrifying image from the Future-That-Never-Was, that image of their Cloud crumbled to the ground with the gaping _hole_ in the side of his head out of their minds. The image that would haunt them all for the rest of time.)

Reborn is the first to break out into a run.

He is the world's best hit man and he trusts his own instincts to alert him to any danger the other Arcobaleno miss, but more than that, Reborn is the _**Sun**_ and it is his job to heal the other Elements in his Sky when they cannot help themselves.

His job to heal Skull.

Skull who is sitting in a puddle of blood every single one of the Arcobaleno _know_ should mean he was dead from blood loss hours ago even though he's not since he's still breathing shallowly and blood is _still_ rushing from his body.

" _Clever bastard."_ Reborn has the absent thought, recognizing instantly what Skull has done to keep up with his loss of blood even as he reaches out for their Cloud and flips him over to see the wounds.

He notices immediately that Skull is still conscious if only barely his eyes unfocused ( _He had been too late, one side of Skull's head completely gone, the half of his skull still intact glaring at him with one unfocused violet eye and his lips pulled back in one last defying snarl-_ ) and not really tracking him.

That changes when Reborn brings his Sun Flames to the surface, hands gleaming, and reaches for Skull. He ignores the other Arcobaleno who have all rushed to their side even as they carefully search the area for any threats.

Something sharp and focused, something dangerous and _feral_ flashes in Skull's eyes clearing the glassy unfocused gleam away like a lightning strike while a hand flashes out coated in blood and _locks_ around his wrist. _**"Don't"**_ their Cloud commands his voice rough like sandpaper but sharp and commanding and Reborn stills.

O~O~O~O~

Skull sensed the exact moment the Arcobaleno saw him. Their Flames had all collectively stilled.

It takes a moment before he hears one of them run to his side. He's barely conscious as he feels his body be rolled over. His eyes aren't really focusing, but he knows that Flame so warm at his side, and even if he hadn't sensed it he would recognize that dark silhouette of Reborn leaning over him long before the gleaming yellow Flames flare to life in his hands.

Skull knows he plans to help him, but he _knows_ his Flames had just ripped open more wounds and he doesn't want to see what Reborn's will do while the curse is in place. Granted that due to blood loss this knowledge just comes across his brain as memory driven instinct that Flames _can't touch him_. He doesn't _quite_ remember why it's a bad idea, just that it _really_ is (he knows that memory loss is a bad sign too) and war instincts rear in his head.

Skull had long ago learned as Harry to ignore life-threatening wounds for periods of time while he fought to ensure he'd live after he was down. This instinct rages through his brain a surge of adrenaline and his magic reacting to his instinctive knowledge that if any more wounds were ripped open on him (what he assumes Flames will do to him) it would _kill him_ and his eyes clear. Adrenaline and magic allow Skull to move his blood coated hand striking out and clamping over Reborn's stilling the move his Sun was making to help him. _**"Don't."**_ he commands sharply his voice rough and sharp with warning and command.

As soon as Reborn has stilled Skull wavers. Adrenaline and magic fade and his hand limply falls away from Reborn's wrist his eyes rolling back on the edge of nothingness.

He knows Viper has magic. He had realized long ago. Fighting a war with magic on the front lines meant that Skull was very, _very_ attuned to the use of it- even if it was small amounts. He'd never brought it up- _Skull_ wouldn't know of magic after all- and since he had never really _used_ any magic in Viper's presence he doesn't believe she knows that he knows about it. Still….Viper will be able to sense the curse magic on him if she pays attention. He just needs to make her pay attention.

He only manages to gasp two more words before his mind retreats- not unconscious but completely unaware of the world as he focuses only on his Flames and keeping himself alive. Let the others worry about the rest of it. He'll just make sure he has enough blood in his body to be alive when they finish.

"Viper….curse…"

O~O~O~O~

Viper straightens at the sound of her name her eyes narrowing beneath her hood as her mind flashes through various reasons Skull would mention the word 'curse' to her specifically.

She wants to brush it off as unimportant but her instincts are sharp, and she has long ago learned to trust them.

She'll figure it out later though, her Cloud had asked for her specifically after stopping Reborn. All of the Arcobaleno knew how to think through things like blood loss and pain, so even if most people would brush off his reaction of pushing their healer away from him, they wouldn't. There was a reason they hadn't seen yet.

And he had called for Viper, which meant she would be able to find the reason.

It takes a frantic few minutes before Viper figures it out.

Her eyes widen behind her cowl and her hands still as she stares at the Cloud.

Curse.

 _Curse_.

It was an _**actual curse**_. Her Cloud was _**talking about magic**_.

Viper herself wasn't _exactly_ a witch. She wasn't a Squib either. She was technically considered a Hedgewitch. Someone with magic, but not enough for a wand. She could make and use both potions and runes, and a few spells would work wandless for her, but she didn't have a core large enough to truly _learn_. (Not that it stopped her from finding ways to substitute with her Flames just to prove she could, but most magic was unattainable for her personally.)

She still researched, she still learned all she could because she knew the knowledge could and would save her life and the lives of others. (Plus there was the money making opportunities if she managed it right, and she was very good at her information gathering job. This just expanded her clientele.) She searched out the old and unknown for herself to use in her illusions, and she knew enough to know what she was seeing.

This was a curse, but she needed to figure out _which one_.

Her hands rushed forward skimming as close as she could to each wound on their Cloud before she realized what she was seeing.

 _Oh shit._

It shouldn't even be _possible_. This was a curse that was beyond ancient- she had only looked at it because it had been between her and an old Egyptian tomb full of treasure- and she had watched the man who had been hit die in moments.

They had learned over the course of trying (and later succeeding) to get the treasure that magic was useless against it, which was _why_ Viper knew what she was seeing. Flames were the only way to survive once it was effecting a person and even then it had to be done in the proper order or it would only make the curse worse.

Sky Flames would petrify sections of skin wherever the wounds were, Sun Flames would speed up the effects of the curse like giving it a supercharge, Lightning Flames would just make it harder to _stop_ the curse, upping the defensive properties of it, Rain Flames would only slow the curse down, it wouldn't help anything, Mist Flames created new more dangerous wounds, and considering Skull's response to Reborn, Viper figured he had discovered that Cloud Flames would just multiply the wounds already present.

(Later, when Skull finds out that he had been hit with a very ancient Egyptian curse that only Flames could fix, that Viper just happened to know how to counter due to earlier treasure hunting, he would shakes his head and mutter about 'the Potter Luck at its finest.')

"Fon!" she called.

Storm Flames had to be applied before everything else. They were the only ones that could destroy the curse itself, and even then it had to be done by someone who knew what they were doing and who had very good control or it would kill the person under the effects of the curse by basically disintegrating them.

Fon knelt at Viper's side immediately. "What do you need?"

"Give me your hand." She snagged the closest hand and brought it forward so it hovered over Skull's wounds. "Focus. I know you'll be able to feel it. The energy that is tainting him."

Fon obeyed without complaint, and sure enough- "What is that?"-his eyes narrowed. It didn't feel like Flames, but it defiantly wasn't natural or friendly and he could feel it trying to spread. It was dark and almost _slimy_.

And it was _hurting Skull._

"Don't worry about that for now" Viper answered "I need you to overwhelm it, and _only_ that Fon. It will fight you every step of the way and if you waver for even a moment it will kill Skull"

Fon tensed sharply even as the stillness around him told him how the warning had effected the others.

 _(The memory of a blood soaked field dead bodies around their Cloud, Skull crumbed in the center with a_ hole in his head _but the evidence he had gone down fighting every step of the way, taking down an entire third of the enemy forces before the shot that killed him had struck-)_

 **That would not happen.**

Fon's determination lights a bonfire of red on his hands as he reaches for the energy in his Cloud that is _wrongwrongwrong_.

Viper is right.

It fights back, lashing out at him like the stinging strikes of a salted whip, writhing under his assault, and causing Skull to arch of the ground with obvious pain though not a sound escapes his lips apart from a hissed shallow breath. Fon doesn't waver for even a moment his eyes narrowed with focus as he destroys the energy that doesn't belong on _anyone_ Fon choses to shelter in the eye of his Storm.

By the time Fon manages to destroy it completely- whatever it was- since it kept trying to _hide_ from him like it was actually sentient and aware Fon was going to destroy it Fon is actually winded. He knows this means that anyone else would be edging on complete Flame Exhaustion. He leans back "It is done."

"Reborn, go." Viper commands and Reborn is there his hands flaring with the healing Flames he had tried to use earlier.

The wounds are sluggish to respond, and it takes more Flame then is should but eventually Reborn gets the wounds closed up, glad that the presence of Storm Flames would have killed any bacteria that may have gotten into Skull's wounds.

Colonnello is the one that picks their Cloud up and heads for the mansion while Fon takes an extra second to burn the blood staining the ground away.

Skull has a _**lot**_ of explaining to do when he's actually conscious, but for now they will take care of him.

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 **I know a lot of you had ideas about how the Arcobaleno would get pulled in, but I have had this planed since before I started this Fic (literally-** this **was the scene that started it all) and I** do **have a method to my madness.**

 **There are reasons for why it went down this way. (To be explained later on.) So don't freak out about it. Also: I BROKE 300 Reviews! OMGYOUGUYS.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Some possible trigger warnings I think. Not sure if it will trigger anyone- but JUST IN CASE: scars are talked of and POWs are mentioned. I don't want anyone to start thinking about anything and slip into a Flashback so there it is. Happy (early) Valentine's Day.**

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Skull wakes up all at once. One moment unaware and the next wide awake though not a breath changes, not a movement gives it away.

He isn't sure when he honestly passed out instead of the mentally retreated state he had been in earlier, but it happened at some point.

His body _hurts_. It feels raw in all the places he had been hurt, like skin layers have been scrubbed off with sandpaper until he bled.

It takes him a few minutes to figure out what happened.

The curse, his inability to heal himself, the knowledge he would have to go to the Arcobaleno and the choice to apparate in. Collapsing and the Arcobaleno's arrival, the instinctual movement to stop Reborn because as far as he could tell in that state Flames just made the curse _worse_ (multiplying his own wounds was not a fun experience) and he didn't want to chance it.

Calling to Viper, hoping she was smart enough to put it together.

She obviously had been, he was alive if very sore.

It takes another second for it to dawn on Skull what this series of events actually _means_.

The Arcobaleno would want explanations.

Explanations he didn't want to give. He had worked hard to keep them out of the world that had taken so much from him. He'd worked hard to be 'Skull' and this…this went against everything he had worked for.

Viper was now aware at the very least that wizards were involved in whatever Skull was doing if nothing else.

That was too much. Even just that would eventually lead to Harry Potter and the Arcobaleno weren't _stupid_ they would put it all together and Skull _was not_ ready for that.

But he still refused to alter their minds. He couldn't do it. It went against his instincts and morals (those that had survived the war). He would _**not**_ alter their memories. It was revolting to him. The very idea that he would break their trust that way…he couldn't do it.

Not to them.

Which meant he'd have to tell them _something_.

This was the closest to sheer blind panic he had been since he was 11 with his hands burning a man into ash with a touch. He breathes for another moment before he opens his eyes, and sits up, the only sign of his pain is the tightening skin around his eyes.

He stills. Something had felt off, but he hadn't noticed it. Not- not exactly. His hands shook.

 _He could see his hands, his arms; his chest._

 _ **His skin was bare.**_

There was nothing covering him. Nothing to shield the marks of war on his body.

 _ **They had seen him without his armor.**_

O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~

The room is silent.

Not one of the Arcobaleno speak, but their _**rage**_ fills the room, making it thick and heavy, almost as if it were humid. The only one absent is Yuni who is with Skull.

They had gone to clean him up after getting him inside. Colonnello had been the one to take him into the bathroom and begin cleaning him up. He hadn't been alone more than three minutes before the others had come back due to the sudden spike of absolutely _inflamingly_ enraged Rain Flames.

Skull had been limp in their Rain's arms, but he had been missing his gloves and shirt.

 _ **Scars.**_

Scars _everywhere_. Scars they could tell at a glance were all inflicted by someone else scars they recognized for the marks of torture that they were.

Words carved into skin, knife wounds, punctures, slashes, things they _didn't even recognize_.

Colonnello had reached forward, hesitant for only a fraction of a moment before he pulled rest of the clothes free until he was left only in boxers.

More scars.

It had gotten worse as they cleaned up his face. As the makeup was cleaned away, the marks of torture (because the Arcobaleno _knew_ what torture scars looked like) were revealed.

Fon had disintegrated the door he had been holding, as well as part of its frame before he got himself under control, but he knew that pesky Lantern Warning System- as Skull called it-meant his eyes were a gleaming red. He had very carefully folded his hands into his sleeves so he wouldn't break anything else down into nothing with a touch. He took careful breaths in an attempt to still the raging of his inner Storm.

It didn't work. ( _Someone had_ _ **carved**_ _into_ _ **his**_ _Cloud's body_ _ **very**_ _deliberately_ )

He needed to demolish something ( _someone_ ) his fists ached with urge to clench and punch whatever ( _whoever_ ) had done this.

Another breath. He couldn't do that yet. ( _ **Oh, but he**_ **would** _ **, he**_ **would** _ **and he would enjoy**_ _every_ _ **moment of it**_ )

Reborn was very, very still. His eyes were shining gold, and his fedora did little to hide their gleam in its shadows as he tried to wrestle the urge to go shake the answers out of their Cloud. He didn't think he'd _ever_ be able to truly _hit_ their Cloud again after this. Some of those scars were _years_ too old to be inflicted at any point but very early childhood. Reborn very carefully controlled his breathing as he struggled to _**not think**_ about how many times he had hit and shoved and kicked their Cloud around. As he struggled to control the very real, very _powerful_ surge of remorse that he had expanded on the hurt of someone who had survived so much. ( _God_ they had called him _**weak**_ but some of those scars should have _**killed**_ him).

His steady hit man hands shook just a little.

Verde was very close to a breakdown.

Not in the 'sobbing hysterical' way, but in the sense that _**everything he thought he knew was wrong**_. He was a _genius_. He _prided himself_ on his information on the other Arcobaleno. He had observed and recorded information on all of the Arcobaleno. _How_ had he missed **this?** How had he _not seen?_ How had he _missed_ all the signs that were so, **so** painfully obvious now that he knew to look for them? The signs that their Cloud had been in and survived torture the likes of which he hadn't ever seen outside some very bad cases of Prisoners of War? Sparks danced across his hair and fingers, his eyes glowing so much brighter green then normal as he wrestled with the knowledge that he had _tried to experiment on a POW survivor._ He didn't have many lines he wouldn't cross, but _that_ was absolutely one of them. He wouldn't put someone who had survived what Skull had back into a situation so like what they had survived.

Except he _had_ in a way. Oh, nowhere near that bad, but he had done a few things that would have _certainly_ triggered a flashback or two if he was reading the scars on the Cloud correctly. (Skin samples, blood taken without permission, tests that didn't scar or maim, but he could see some scars that spoke of things that mimicked these tests, but were _meant_ to torture.)

Guilt was an emotion Verde was not familiar with (almost as unfamiliar as the situation where he was wrong) and _he didn't like it_.

Colonnello's hands shook. His blue eyes glowed. He had had to wash the blood away. He had felt each new scar as it appeared under makeup or blood, or under a layer of clothes. He has gotten a very, very close look at the marks on their Cloud. Colonnello who was a soldier and recognized the signs of _war_ when he saw them.

He was going to be _sick_.

He was a soldier and he hadn't seen that their Cloud was one as well. A brother in arms. _Always Faithful_ he had sworn, he had sworn he would be to those who fought. And he finds he _hadn't_ been. Skull hadn't looked like it, but he was a _soldier_ a **survivor** __and Colonnello had _ **missed it**_. That had been bad enough, but to not only miss the signs, but miss them so thoroughly he had _abused_ (oh _god_ he had hadn't he? That was what he had done and he _**hadn't realized it**_. He hadn't connected his actions with _that_ word) what looked to be a POW?

Colonnello hunched in over his knees as he tried not to throw up.

How would they _**ever**_ make this up to their Cloud?

Viper's was feeling a little faint. She wasn't _stupid_.

She has sensed that Skull had magic. She had thought him to be like her: a Hedgewizard. Except he could apparate, as he had done to get to them. That meant he was an actual full-fledged magic user.

A magic user _covered_ in scars. Scars enough to look like he had come out of a war.

What magical place did she know of that had had any sort of war recently enough for her Cloud to have the scars he did?

Britain.

Voldemort.

Skull De Mort.

She had gone to get a closer look at those scars when they were revealed to her once the blood and makeup, the armor he had worn was stripped away. Each scar had upped her horror and shame. She had never hit or screamed at Skull, but she had stood by. She hadn't helped him as she should have.

That scar on his hand. The words 'I must not tell lies'. The knife wound on his arm, a knife that had been wielded by someone else, the puncture wound on his arm that appeared to be chemical burned, the marks on his back…they had all lead her to one conclusion…she had _**prayed**_ she was wrong to a god she didn't believe in.

And then she had shakily lifted Skull's fringe and there it was. Nearly invisible it was so faded, if she hadn't known exactly where to look and what she was looking for, she would have missed it.

The lightning bolt.

She had swayed on her feet, _revulsion_ slamming into her. Not for Skull, not for him. No she had never been more disgusted with _herself_ in her life.

The man who had lead the war, the man who had saved their people, and especially those like her who were not like the wizards with full use of their magic had been _**sitting with her for over 33 years**_ , who had given her gold, and baked her the best of her favorite desserts for information and favors and she had _**missed it.**_

The only thing to save her from falling over was that she was sitting down now.

Good _**gods**_ Skull was _ **the Man-Who-Conquered**_. __

O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~

"Skull…"

Purple eyes swing to the side of his bed and there she is. His Sky.

He flinches back from her sight the thought rings through his head that _"Oh_ _ **god**_ _she can_ _ **see all my scars**_ _she's_ _ **staring**_ _at me stop it stopit STOPIT"_

"Skull breathe. Breathe okay. It's okay. Shhhh…." She reached out to him and he flinched again, but he's already against the wall and he can't go anywhere without moving Yuni who has stood and approached him slowly, reaching out for him even though all he wants to do it _hide_ because she _**had seen**_.

"It's okay" she tells him and he wants to scream that _No it's not_ but his voice had locked as she cradled his face between her hands much as she had in the forest when he had collapsed under chains except her eyes are a shining gleaming orange as she soothes him.

When it dawns on him that she isn't looking away from his eyes, not once does her eyes flicker to any scar that is showing he slowly, achingly slowly, relaxes on the bed, "Yuni." He whispers "Where are my clothes?"

Her eyes are soft as she sighs "Destroyed, but I have something for you."

She hands him a pair of leather gloves and a long sleeve dress shirt (it's Reborn's) and a long pair of cargo pants (Colonnello's) and he settles a little even though he has to roll both articles of clothing up a bit to manage them, and he still feels naked and knows the scars from Malfoy Manor are showing on his face, but most of them are covered and he doesn't feel like he's about to crawl out of his own skin now just like ants are crawling over his exposed face.

He can ignore that.

But…

"Do…Do they know?" he asks his Sky and he knows she knows what he is asking.

 _Do they know I am Harry Potter?_

Yuni had always known who her Cloud had been, had always shielded him as best as she could from the others and it's part of the reason Skull is so ruthless in defense of her.

"They will" she answers him "And Viper knows for sure"

Skull flinches.

He knows they would eventually have found out about his past…but he had never thought it would be like this.

A slip up on his part on a self-imposed mission.

And that thought from what seems like an age ago is back in his head, the whispered thought that he no longer needs to wonder and will soon have an answer too.

 _What will they think of me?_

O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~

 **GUYS 400 REVIEWS YOU ARE SPOILING ME. WHAT WILL I DO WITH YOU ALL? I AM NOT READY.**

 **HAPPY (early) VALENTINES DAY. ENJOY THE SUFFER- I mean present, enjoy the present.**


	10. Chapter 10

**First: Thank you all SO MUCH! I REACHED 500 REVIEWS and I'm not quite sure what to do with myself. (besides spazzing out)**

 **Second: This is actually really difficult trying to get Skull to explain all of this and it's getting long so it's gonna get split apart.**

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Lal had had to leave the room. She was a Rain, but even she had her limits to what she would deal with. Finding out how much Skull had been hurt, that they had made his situation worse, that they- that _she_ \- had missed **so much** about their Cloud was…

Lal wanted to _hit_ things until something broke- her hand, the object, or Skull's enemies- until she couldn't feel anything for a while. A soldier had been the one to _save_ her and her kids. It had been winter and she had been homeless, cold, and starving, but she had been the oldest in the group and one of the few able to go out for food and come back. She still wouldn't have made it alive with the kids she watched out for- her kids-if the soldier hadn't helped her.

She owed her life to a soldier, had chosen her career path because of that soldier, had become and worked with soldiers for a large portion of her life and she _hadn't noticed_.

If Lal hadn't walked away she would have destroyed the house.

There had been _so many_ scars.

 _Gods_ they had been so blind.

She slides back into the house silently after working off some of the rage (they had firewood for a while) before sitting on the couch next to Colonnello.

O~O~O~O~

Skull's hands are shaking.

He can't hide up here forever, he knows, but he doesn't want to go downstairs either. Yuni sits beside him, waiting for Skull to move. She doesn't say a word to him about what he 'should' do.

Skull appreciates that.

They had seen his scars, and had saved his life. They were his Elements, his friends. He had hidden this from them for 33 years. He had always known they would find out though.

He supposed it was time.

Skull shudders again before he stands. A hand ghosts over the scars on his face before his eyes drift to the hand bearing the scar 'I must not tell lies'. His eyes lift to the door that leads downstairs.

It was time. He'd always meant for the others to find out about his past, just…not like this. He'd always thought it would be on _his_ terms. When _he_ felt ready.

If he was honest, Skull didn't think he would ever have been 'ready' to tell them though.

So maybe…maybe this was for the best.

Even if he felt like he was going to throw up he was so nervous. Even if he hands shook, and his breath wanted to come in too-quick gasps. Even if he wasn't even sure where to _start_ explaining everything to the others.

Just because it was for the best didn't mean that Skull didn't want to run. He _wanted_ to run- very much. He didn't want to explain this, didn't want to relive everything he had survived.

Didn't want the Arcobaleno to see Harry Potter in Skull De Mort.

He wouldn't run though. He had faced Voldemort, a Basilisk, Dementors, Dragons, Mermaids, and war all trying to kill him without running. He refused to start with the Arcobaleno who cared about his wellbeing. He took a shaky breath before he began heading for the stairs.

He wasn't really ready for this, but…but circumstances meant it was time to tell them anyway. A tried sort of smirk worked its way onto his face. Once again he was shoved into a situation without being prepared.

At least this one wouldn't kill him.

O~O~O~O~O~O~

The Arcobaleno's eyes snapped to the stairs when they heard the door open and shut. They knew Skull had let them hear him coming. (Even before all _this_ had happened Skull had always been quiet on his feet, so they knew the noise was deliberate)

They watch as their Cloud slinks down the stairs his shoulders tense, his face blanked, but his eyes shining with stress and tension. He gets about halfway down the stairs before he pauses, his dark ( _jaded_ ) eyes staring at them all. They see the subtle shiver that runs through his body before he takes a deep audible breath and continues down the stairs.

"I've fought my entire life." He tells them with his voice shaking a bit, but his eyes are steady. "I didn't even make it to two years old before I started fighting" he continues and the Arcobaleno want to flinch.

They had known they wouldn't like what came out of their Cloud's mouth (and only Viper truly knows how _much_ the others will loathe what they will soon learn, only Viper has any idea of how _dark_ their Cloud's life had actually been) but they hadn't thought it would start so _early_.

 _Two?_ He had fought since he was physically the age the curse had reverted them to?

O~O~O~O~O~O

Skull has locked his body into place at the foot of the stairs after letting that first sentence escape his lips.

He hadn't really realized at first that he _had_ been fighting since he was two. "I-" he paused and closed his eyes and breathed.

This was _**hard**_.

Harder than walking out to the Forbidden Forest and meeting Voldemort, knowing, _knowing_ he would die there. Dying was _easy_. Making the choice between his life and the lives of his friends, of the _**children**_ that stood behind him?

There had never been an easier choice in his life.

Living was hard. It was uncertain and things changed, and it _hurt_ but- but.

He had stood up from certain death for a second time and had marched forward from there even after he realized he was different than the others, even after he realized that the war he had fought, the family he had lost, the friends he had buried that had all died for a world free of Voldemort and for some sort of equality had died for _nothing_ because everything they had fought against was _still happening_ only now it was better hidden. (And that had been one of the worst realizations of all)

Telling all of this to the Arcobaleno was _hard_ , but he would get through this. He wasn't wiping their minds, and they wouldn't leave him alone now that they knew _something_ so Skull would have to talk.

"I" he continued, his voice steadying out as he spoke "lost my parents when I was one. They died defending me from a madman." His eyes glazed ( _Lilly it's him! Take Harry and run! I'll hold him off!_ )( _Not Harry! Please, no, not Harry! Take me! Take me instead!_ ) before he shoved the memories back. "I was left with my mother's sister. She…did not take after my Mum. She…my Aunt that is, and her family wanted nothing to do with me, and so my fight began." Skull didn't meet any of the Arcobaleno's eyes. Instead he stared over shoulders and at the walls around them.

O~O~O~O~O~O~

The Arcobaleno didn't need anything spelled out for them. They weren't stupid. With what Skull had said, and what he _wasn't_ saying paired with the scars on his body- some that they _knew_ where from very early childhood…

Skull had been abused by this family of his.

Flames stirred in response to their anger. It wasn't even two minutes into their Cloud speaking to them and they were already angry. They were Mafia and it wasn't something they hadn't seen before- especially at the top of the Underworld where they stood- of course. Child abuse was unfortunately a rather common problem so it was something they had seen and dealt with many times honestly.

But this…this was _**their**_ Cloud. This was personal. This was one of _theirs_ that had been hurt and that changed things.

 _Gods_ they had hurt their Cloud so much more than they had realized. How many times had they hit him? How many times had they yelled and demanded and ordered him around?

…Skull had never dodged their hands before only gunshots and weapons. He'd always just taken their orders and obeyed. Almost like he was used to hands hurting him and saw no reason to dodge them. Almost like it was instinctive to respond to orders without thought (especially since they had _hit him_ while giving their orders)

Glances were exchanged as they realized this. How much had they expanded on their Cloud's pain just by mimicking his early childhood, even if they hadn't realized it? How much had they hurt him?

O~O~O~O~O~O~

Skull continued "It wasn't pleasant there. I was made into a live-in slave. Punishments included getting hit, whipped, and starved." Skull fell back to 'mission mode' as he spoke. It allowed him to recite what he knew without feeling too emotionally attached to the information. He had used in during the war many times and working in the Mafia had only made it worse. It would hit him later, and hit him _hard_ after he had finished, but for now this allowed him to speak without his emotions overwhelming him too horribly.

It…wasn't healthy, but Skull didn't think he'd manage with the Arcobaleno if he did this any other way.

"Mistakes resulted in punishment. Mistakes included burning food, missing a spot while cleaning, not cleaning something _enough_ , trimming hedges unevenly, missing weeds in the garden, doing better than my cousin in anything, touching my cousin's belongings, asking questions, speaking out of turn, being rude, being a freak." He drew in a breath "If my cousin did something wrong, it was my fault for being a freak and I was punished. If my cousin made something up and told my Aunt or Uncle I was punished. If I tried to defend myself I was punished. If I dodged I was punished. I learned quickly that I _didn't ask questions_ and it was better to just take the punishments without complaint or any attempts to fight back because once I was _caught_ it was five times worse than it would have been. I learned that guarding my food was something I would be punished for by having it taken away, I learned not to ask for more or I wouldn't be fed anything, I learned that if my cousin was hungry he could take my food from me and I had to let him. I learned that food was rare and I had to obey the rules of the house or I would get nothing" He blinked, some feeling working its way past his barriers and into his eyes and voice "And I was _hungry_ so I listened. I didn't fight back, I didn't disobey, I tried to be their version of perfect."

Skull fell back to the repressed state as he continued "I know _now_ that the only thing that kept my going was my abilities, but I didn't find that out until years later."

O~O~O~O~O~O~

They felt sick.

All the Arcobaleno felt nauseous in one way or another. Hands that were some of the steadiest in the world, hands that could carve out swathes of death without the slightest of quivers shook. Subtly, almost unnoticed, but they shook.

Their treatment of Skull had mimicked these people. These people they were so angry with had done what they had done. They had hit their Cloud, shoved him around and screamed at him. They had demanded perfection from him, and when it wasn't given to them they had gotten violent with him. If he had fought against them they had hit him harder. ( _I learned quickly to not ask questions and take the punishments without complaint or any attempts to fight back._ ) And how many times had they taken food from his plate and eaten it in front of him? ( _I was_ hungry _so I listened._ )

Flames stilled and stuttered in their horror, glances were exchanged, hands quivered, eyes _gleamed_ with Flames as emotions raged under the surface of the blank faces of the Arcobaleno projected much as Skull was doing now.

And that was wrong too. Skull was meant to be emotional and flamboyant and _loud._ Not this… _blank_ marble statue that recited this information like he was describing the list of groceries he needed to get and not the earth shaking revelations that they were for the Arcobaleno.

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"I was six when I realized that no matter what I did my family would loathe my existence and punish me for whatever imagined wrong they could think of. I still preformed as close to perfect as I could manage for them, but I realized at six that it wouldn't change anything." He tilted his head "I was six and a half when I found out I couldn't _tell_ anyone about what they did to me because everyone I told, or anyone that put the pieces together would suddenly 'forget' and then 'disappear'. I was trapped and nothing I did would change it."

Skull sighed "And then I turned eleven and I saw a glimpse of the sun. A flicker of hope."

His eyes cleared of blankness and focused sharply on the horrified faces of the Arcobaleno (not that they showed any sign of rage or pain, but Skull knew how to read them anyway) as he told them "What I tell you now is a secret kept under something that is a reflection of Omerta. I am using a loophole to tell you of it- for it states that I may only tell members of my family and so I am telling my Family, but you _must not_ speak on this."

Skull stares at the Arcobaleno. As Harry Potter it is entirely possible he could tell whoever he wished of Magic so long as he trusted them and no one would breathe a word against it, but he will not have them saying anything that would have someone messing with their minds. He also wants them to realize that this is a society like the mafia in the sense that it is hidden and _dangerous_. He waits until he has a verbal agreement from each of the Arcobaleno before he retreats back to that blank state of being where he represses the emotions attached to his memories.

"I warn you now that breaking this agreement could result in me being placed in Their version of Vindice's prisons and your minds will all be wiped of any memories of what I tell you now as well as any memory of _me_. You will not remember any of it."

He can feel the bristling of the Arcobaleno's Flames but it's muted in this state, something that feels far away.

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All of the Arcobaleno bristle and their Flames roar under their skin as their Cloud casually speaks of _mind wipes_ , of _forgetting_ him, of a Vindice equivalent taking him away to be left to _rot_ while they _forgot anything was wrong_.

It would have been better if he had sounded more emotional about it, but Skull spoke like a civilian spoke of rain. Like it was nothing. Something to be deal with.

Viper alone knows that Skull speaks of Azkaban and Dementors and she shudders. She would not allow their Cloud to fall to that fate. Not even if she needed to use a Mist laced compulsion. She had failed her Cloud (the Man who saved her) more than enough already. She would not fail him in this. Would not allow him to be caged in that hellhole.

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Skull can feel how close he is to breaking down. He's a hairsbreadth away from just _stopping_ , from backing out of the room. His childhood had been the easy part for all that it had hurt to tell them. This next part…his Hogwarts years…that glimpse of the sun so close he could almost touch it only to discover he was Icarus and he had flown too close to the sun and was soon to crash _**painfully**_ to the ground…

A deep breath and he reinforces the barrier between his mind and his emotions.

He can break later. He can shatter apart afterwards, he can put himself back together as he always has after he finishes here.

All he needs to do is breathe. As long as he breathes he can step forward, he can keep going.

(Even when he is falling apart and there's no one there to put him together again anymore, even when he feels like he's bleeding, when he feels like he can't take another step. As long as he was breathing he could stagger on as he always has: broken and lost and pained but stubborn.)

(Or perhaps not stubborn, but lost with no idea how to do anything _but_ continue forward no matter what is in his way because it was all he had been taught to do, all he knew _how_ to do.)


	11. Chapter 11

**Ivy Raven: Thank you for the review. I wanted to let you know that it hadn't even crossed my mind to do this differently than I did until you brought it up and I appreciate it. I wanted you (and the others) to know your thought had sparked an idea in me. I will be posting an AU oneshot of Slip Up that covers what may have happened if Skull had decided he was ready to tell the Arcobaleno of his past** _ **himself**_ **. If he had told them because he was ready rather than what happened here.**

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Skull waits for each of the Arcobaleno to voice their understanding on what will happen to him and to them if they let slip anything he is about to tell them before he takes a deep breath.

"What you need to understand" Skull began explaining "is that Flames and the Mafia are not the only powers or societies hidden in the world." He sighs. "There is a society that hides behind protections that predates even the Mafia itself. It predates written history. For as long as man has walked the earth, these people, this society, has walked beside them."

Skull paused. After he had become the Cloud Arcobaleno he had actually dove into magical research in an attempt to break the curse itself as well as see if their history had contained anything about Flames, the Arcobaleno, or Checkerface. He had found quite a few things, but nothing to help break the curse itself. Instead he had discovered information on Flames themselves. The information itself was so old it was virtually forgotten which was why no one had been able to identify the Cloud Flames he had been using as Harry Potter during the war.

"I discovered in fact that it is from _this_ society that Flame Users spring from. This society considers itself to be Wizards and Witches, to be users of Magic. In a way, they are correct. The people of this Wizarding World are capable of bending reality to their whims with a word, of changing their own shapes, the shapes of everything around them. They are capable of affecting people's minds and wills, of defying the laws of physics using the energy they call 'magic.' Inside this world there are those considered to be 'pure blood' who can trace their family trees up at least four generations where their parents and their parents' parents are magic users, 'half-bloods' who have one pure blood parent and one muggleborn parent or one wizarding parent and one muggle parent, and then muggleborns who have no signs of magic in their family for at least four generations prior to that 'muggleborn'. Muggles are of course the society's term for what we consider to be civilians. People with no magic or in any way aware of magic and these peoples."

Skull gave them the information they would need to understand what he would be dragged into later on in his story, pausing to be sure they had followed the explanation. He received nods from each of the Arcobaleno, their eyes dark as they waited for the rest of the pieces to fall into place about their Cloud.

Skull took another breath, his eyes glazed with memories as he picked up the story. "There are then those called 'squibs' who are children born to magic users who have no ability to _use_ magic. Internally, they have magic, but there are no channels for the magic to be used. The first Flame Users were born from squibs who when put in a life threatening situation they were determined and resolved enough to survive. This resolve and determination as well as their internal magic all resulted in Flames coming into being."

Skull paused again as he ponders how to explain this "Magic is…strange. There are no _true_ laws in which magic can be contained, no limits that magic itself cannot break. It is always the person in control of the magic that limits its capabilities whether that is because of their resolve and belief or their power levels. Magic in and of itself is sentient in a way. It will react to ensure its survival and the survival of its user. In the case of the squibs that activated Flames it was their magic reacting to their resolve and the threat to their lives in the only way it _could_ with no external outlet. It reached for its users' _soul_."

"As mafia I'm sure you all already know that Flames are manifestations of a person's soul. It is why no matter _how many_ of one Flame type there are you can always tell the difference between a Storm, Sky, Sun, Lightning, Rain, Cloud, or Mist that you know even if you are standing in a room full of the same Flame types. No one's soul is exactly the same as another. It took a spark of magic to bring the Flames into being, to give the soul an outlet for its power. This history was recorded in the Wizarding World of course but was later forgotten and lost because of the difficulty Magic users had in accessing Flames. Magic users didn't have a true _need_ to reach for their Flames if they had access to their magic and it resulted in too few Flame users for the magic users to keep the history I just told you all well-known."

Verde tilted his head "Why do you know this history than?" his voice was steady, but the very fact he had asked told Skull how interested he was in what Skull had told him. None of the Flame users knew exactly where Flames came from after all- just that they were a manifestation of the soul.

Skull smirked humorlessly. "I doubt any of you knew this, but on the Fated Day- the day we were cursed to be the Arcobaleno- I was barely 18 maybe a month or two after my birthday when it all happened. I was still 17 when I first met you all."

He was observant enough to see each of the Arcobaleno blanch and flinch at the information despite how well they hid their emotions and reactions. It had barely been after the war when he'd been cursed Skull remembered. He'd been asked to lead after winning against Voldemort and for a little while- for a little less than a month- he had. He'd gotten fed up with it quickly. He hadn't had any time to grieve for his losses, or focus on himself- it was always 'help us…' or 'can you…' It had gotten to the point that Harry had left only to end up as a stunt man.

Then Checkerface had gotten to him and he'd done a few jobs before the Fated Day where everything had turned on its head. Thirty-three years later and Skull _should_ have been 51 except the breaking of the curse had brought them back to the age they had been when they were cursed to begin with so Skull was 51 mentally and 18 physically. Physically Fon and Colonnello were 23, Verde was 24, Lal was 25, Reborn was 26 and Viper was 29 so Skull could understand why his age would be unpleasant to them. They'd all been considered at least a few years into 'adulthood' as well as raised with the Mafia when the curse was placed on them. Skull _technically_ hadn't been. Mentally he had felt years older, but he could imagine they didn't like the idea of a civilian being introduced to the mafia before he had even broken the age of 18.

"I was barely 18 when Fated Day came to pass and I wanted to _fix_ it. I wanted to be myself again, wanted _my_ body. I had _fought_ in my body, survived some crazy things, things I should have never walked away from in my body and this curse had taken it from me. I felt…" he paused trying to put it into words how it had affected him when he no longer had the body he was used to the body he had survived in. "It wasn't _me_. I was too small, couldn't reach anything, and people treated me like I was the two year old I appeared to be. I thought that I could find a way to fix it all if I looked hard enough. I dug into the history of Magic in an attempt to break the curse. I didn't find a way to manage that, but I did find the origin story of Flames buried in the depths of too many old tomes."

Skull shook his head "We're getting off track." He sighed. He hadn't really wanted to talk about his history so he had allowed the conversation to drift, but he needed to get this over with.

"I myself am considered a half-blood since my father was a pureblood and my mother a Muggleborn. Magical children receive an invitation to the closest Magical School to their 'home' location when they turn eleven. I was eleven when I received an invitation to Britain's magical school Hogwarts. It was my glimpse of light. A flicker of hope. A place for children like me. A place I was not considered a freak where I would be welcomed and allowed to flourish."

He snorted.

"It was a fool's dream. A child's hope."

He fell silent staring blankly at nothing for a moment before he shook it off, shoving the emotions back behind his barriers and taking a breath. "First you need to know my birth name: I was known as Harry James Potter before I became Skull. Do not refer to me as Harry ever. It is dangerous for you and for me. I left that behind me even before I met any of you. I was Skull before I met you and I am Skull now. After I was tracked down to be given the letter that invited me to the Magic school by a half-giant personally he took me to the magical shopping district and I learned within the first five minutes that I was _famous_ " he spat the word like it was poison and the Arcobaleno blinked in surprise. Skull reveled in being 'the famous Skull-samma who even Death hates' so hearing the loathing in his voice now was odd. Skull shook his head "It was…horrible. I had learned to be _unnoticed_ with my relatives and suddenly everyone knew who I was, everyone wanted to know what I was doing, everyone wanted to _touch_ me like I was a god walking among humans for the first time and it drove me _mad_." (Skull had been dealing with Cloud instincts even at this point though he hadn't known it. It certainly hadn't helped the 'everyone is touching me' issue at the time anyway.) "I wanted to be like everyone else for once and it wasn't happening. When I finally managed to get out of the crowds I asked questions and figured out my parents had died for me, to protect me from a mad Dark Lord who had terrorized Britain's magical population for years in a war. I found out that my parents died in the attempt of protecting me and when the Dark Lord turned to me I survived what was supposed to be a one hit instant kill as a one year old and I was suddenly made famous because of it because the Dark Lord died in the attempt."

The Arcobaleno scowled at the information someone had tried to kill their baby Cloud. It didn't matter that they hadn't even known who he was at the time of the attack. It just made them angry that someone had _tried_.

Viper kept her mouth shut about the fact that Voldemort had come back to try and kill their Cloud again. She was angry enough on her own she didn't need to deal with the others until she absolutely had to.

"I was given my first birthday present while I was there though. A pet. Or a partner. A snowy owl I named Hedwig. She was to me what Oodako and Leon and out partners are now. I was handed my ticket and sent back to my relatives." A pause as Skull thinks on Hedwig who had died for him that night so long ago before he continues "To get to Hogwarts the children ride on a train. It was here that I met the first members of those I would come to consider my family, those I would come to consider _mine_ to love and protect; those I would teach and shield when they could not shield themselves." Skull pulled his magic to the surface as he focused. There was no wand to be tracked or tagged when Skull used his magic so he was able to create an image to accompany the names without drawling any attention to his location. (Wandless magic had gotten much easier after using his Flames and such for so long. He wondered if it was because Flames were their own sort of Soul magic. Technically anyway.)

The Arcobaleno watched as Skull's eyes began to gleam with power before in a subtle shimmer of air two people came into being. There was a male standing at a solid six feet two inches with gleaming orange-red hair and laughing blue eyes, a smirk painted over his lips one arm thrown over the shoulder of the woman beside him. The woman only came up to the man's chest with curling bushy brown hair tamed only by the tail she had bound it in and matching eyes that were frozen mid roll a fond expression on her face and her mouth open in what obviously mid conversation, one hand in the middle of gesturing. "These" Skull spoke softly, his voice wistful and slightly pained as his emotions resurfaced for a moment "are the siblings of my heart. The man was Ronald Weasley and the first friend I ever made. He was not Active, but I know now that he was a Classic Storm Flame. We clashed a few times, had our fights of course-some worse then others-but when the chips were down he stood at my left. The woman was one of the most brilliant people I ever met." Skull's mouth pulled up into a half-smirk "Her name was Hermione Granger and we didn't get along very well at first, but face-to-face encounters with trolls changed some things. She wasn't Active either, but she was an Inverted Lightning and had all the lightning focus of one." Skull blinked his eyes turning to Verde "She would have been good for you Verde. A woman you could have talked _with_ not _at_ who would have challenged you at every turn even if she wasn't quite at your level. She was our driving force, the focus we needed, the strike of light in the darkness. The one who stood at my right when the world turned away. Even when the Storm turned away from me, Lightning was there to light the way. She was loyal in even the darkest of times."

The warm eyes filled with grief for a moment before they dimmed again "Of course, this image is of the two when they were older" another subtle shimmer and the images aged down until the eleven year old versions of his friends stood before the Arcobaleno. "This was the two of them when I met them."

He stared at the images of his best friends- his siblings- frozen in time before they were touched by darkness. When they were still… _children_. Children untouched by war, whose biggest worry was the Potions Essay that was due at the end of the week.

He let the image fade as he continued to speak. "I was an eleven year old child who had been basically isolated and hurt by those who should not have hurt me. I was all of this and then I was told of magic and how I _belonged_ there. I was told of the world my family had lived in, the world my parents had defended. I was told I _belonged._ It was a long time before I saw the manipulation for what it was. It had been taking place even then, as early as my first steps into this new world."

Skull took a breath before he began to speak of the first year submerged in magic.

He told them of the awe and wonder seeing the castle he would call home for the first time, of the shock that came from seeing pictures with personality that moved and spoke and interacted with the people around them. He told them about the ghosts and the stairways that moved. The way the layout of the school never stayed the same, about the trick stairs and the passageways that were there only sometimes. He told them of the Great Hall and the Sorting Hat. He spoke of the Houses of Hogwarts and what they were supposed to represent. (Bravery and Chivalry, Cunning and Ambition, Intelligence and Wisdom, Hard work and Loyalty) He spoke of what the children of the school actually believed the Houses to be even though they never actually said as much- just expected it to be so and were angry when it was not. (Rushing headlong into danger with no plan and calling it 'bravery', Backstabbers and evil waiting to happen, Bookworms and know it all's, the Leftovers) He spoke on what he would later learn was the truth about the Houses. (Of how the Brave were usually the most frightened, but how they stood up anyway and stared their fear in the face, of how the Brave often needed other people to tell them to stop. He spoke of how the Cunning were fiercely possessive and protective of what was 'theirs' of how the Cunning stood most viciously in defense of the others, of how they were the ones to think their way around the issues. He spoke of the Intelligent and how they were the most dangerous of the lot. How in the pursuit of the knowledge they needed there was no rule they would not break, of how they were the ones to provide the Cunning the knowledge they needed to think around the issues and give the Brave the path they needed to take in their charge of the Intelligent who teamed up with the Loyal and helped to clear the way. He spoke of the Loyal and the cutthroat sort of outlook they had on the defense of those who had earned their loyalty. Of how the Loyal were the taskforce behind the rest of them, the hands and feet that reached out and cleared the way for the others to take over and think their way through the next problem so the Hardworking could go out and clear the next place.)

He spoke of how he was almost placed into the house of the Cunning before he talked his way out of it and was instead placed into the house of the Brave. He told the listening Arcobaleno of the classes he took, the teacher who held a grudge but was the one who ended up saving him the most. He shared the story (and used his magic to show it to them- he really should just pull out the Pensieve) of going after Hermione and running into the troll that had gotten into the school. He spoke of the thing in the woods that killed the unicorns and the curse that would be laid on those who drank the unicorn's blood as this thing had been doing. He told the Arcobaleno of the very first Christmas he had celebrated- truly celebrated with gifts and giving and being with people he wanted to be with. The Invisibility Cloak he had gotten that had once belonged to his father and the photo album that was even now one of his most cherished possessions.

He spoke of the subtle manipulations he hadn't seen then, too blinded by the light of hope and joy that was the sun to his Icarus. He spoke of the stone and the murder attempts on his person. He spoke of his suspicions throughout the year the clues they put together until they had a solution. Then he spoke of how the Headmaster left the school. He spoke of the frantic attempt to tell an authority figure of what they had learned, the attempt to let someone who knew what they were doing take on the defense of the Stone. He spoke of being brushed off for his age, told to leave everything alone.

Skull explained being unable to leave it alone. The manipulations that lead to him walking into the third floor corridor with Ron and Hermione walking in at his side. He spoke of the traps and obstacles in his path. The hindsight that let him look back now and realize he had been lead in by his nose to that corridor how _nothing_ in that corridor had been above a first year's ability to get past apart from the very last trap.

In hindsight even that last trap had been pure chance. Someone who wanted to find the stone but not use it…Technically Quirrell hadn't wanted to use the stone. He'd wanted to _give_ it to someone. To Voldemort. If that thought had been in his head when he looked at the mirror instead of the idea that Voldemort would use it…everything would have ended there.

He spoke of making his way forward and how it ended up being he alone that stood at the end. He whispered of discovering the wraith of his parents' murderer possessing one of his professors. Of staring that wraith in the eyes and telling him ' _no_ ' of the way the man had tried to kill him.

He told them of his very first kill. The way the man had burned under his hands into nothing but ashes until all that was left was the wraith who had then proceeded to attack him.

He told the listening Arcobaleno of the first of many visits to the Hospital Wing.

And then he explained leaving that castle and the magic. Of asking to be allowed to stay so he wouldn't have to go back to his relatives. He told them of the refusal. And then he shared how his relatives had been informed he couldn't use magic outside the halls of Hogwarts. How his relatives had been frightened and angry he had learned anything at all of all the 'freakishness'.

He spoke of the workload they dumped on him in retaliation as well as the pain that would come to be dealt out to him in response.

He took a deep breath.

"I have something called a Pensieve that I can retrieve later." Skull offered "It will allow you to _see_ what happened to me. Allow you to view my memories of these events as if you were there. It will not allow you to interact with anything or anyone, but you will be able to see it all." It would be a good way for the Arcobaleno to draw their own conclusions and see anything he hadn't mentioned to them or see more details wherever they wished he had expanded on what he said.

"And all of this was just my first year." Skull snorted in the silence. "It only got worse from there."

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 **What am I doing? I don't like this one very much, but here it is anyway. Some scenes will be expanded on later or in the 'Pensieve Session'. Skull is informing them yes, but he still needs to get going to save his Family. This is sort of a quick run-down so he can get back to the Neo Eaters and their ragingly stupid move of taking his family.**


	12. Chapter 12

**-squeaks out-** _ **600 Reviews**_ **. I'm over half-way to 1000. I might scream. There may be tears, Also: I wrote a oneshot called 'Burned' and another called 'Burned Cloud' that take place in the 'Burn Me With Fire' universe by the lovely inspiration known as Shadowblayze (With Permission) if y'all wanna take a look. (Go read BMwF if you haven't. It's gorgeous.)**

 **3/28/16: Edits! I used some bad wording down near the bottom in regards to Skull and scars so I am fixing it up.**

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Skull remained silent for a few moments, just to give the Arcobaleno a chance to absorb what he had told them before he takes a deep breath.

He describes the summer before with the house elf who was trying to 'save him.' He speaks of the barrier and the flying car. He tells them of getting to school and describes the _ponce_ that took the position of DADA teacher that year. He's quick to summarize all the way up to the point where Lockhart managed to _vanish his bones_.

He has to stop there because Reborn had to get up and go destroy something. Skull doesn't flinch away when Reborn reaches forward with Sun Flames flaring on his hands. He lets the man look. There was nothing for the Sun to fix, but he knows it will bother Reborn the rest of his story and the Sun will likely just look _anyway_ once he was asleep if he didn't let him look now.

(Reborn then curses in various languages as his Sun Flames tell him the _age_ of the bones in Skull's arm which doesn't match the age they _should_ be.)

He describes the attacks that take place over the year and the dueling club and his ability to speak to snakes. And then he mentions the resulting isolation from the others of his year (apart from Ron and Hermione) of how students had either fled in fear from him or followed him to keep him from petrifying the other students.

His face clouds over in anger for a moment as he pauses. "And then" he purrs, voice low and dangerous and deadly "the creature _attacked my heart-sister._ " Skull's eyes gleamed dangerously. "I had never" he explained after calming himself down "experienced a Cloud's temper until this point. Not truly. I had been angry. I had been upset. But until that point nothing had trodden so heavily over my instincts. Instincts I didn't know I had. Instincts I didn't know how to control. I _raged_ on her behalf. She was _mine_ and this creature had _dared to touch her._ This person had attacked _one of mine_ …and the situation was made all the worse by the fact that Ron was a Classic Storm."

Skull's eyes drifted to Fon "Storms are possessive people. They are protectors by nature once they find something they deem worthy of their protection and are _fierce_ in their defense of it. Storms also tend to obsess over something to a ridiculous point. We know this. You all know this. Ron was a Classic Storm who had obsessed over _strategy_ who had chosen to shield myself, his family, and Hermione in the eye of his Storm. He was a Classic Storm who had _failed_ to protect one of his own. He _raged_ as I raged. The Cloud was writhing and so the Storm was stirred. We fed each other's tempers."

Skull shook his head. "Ron obsessed over seeing what he had missed. Hermione had figured it out- we knew that much. Whatever this creature was that was petrifying students Hermione had put it all together and was coming to warn _us_ what it was when she was attacked. That made it worse for the both of us."

Another pause "We put the clues together of course…but not before a warning was painted across the walls in blood. 'Her skeleton will lie in the Chamber forever.' And then Ron discovered his little sister was missing while the school panicked over the message. He came to me for help. We did try to take Lockhart with us. He was the defense teacher after all- but the man was packing to leave in a rush." Skull's eyes gleamed again glowing with his Flames as he growled "He was going to abandon the children he had sworn to teach and defend at the first sign of danger. I… _made clear_ my views on the matter. And if I had to lead the man down to the Chamber at wand point…well." His smirk was tinted with a bit of bloodlust.

Harry had taught students. He had taught children to defend themselves in a war against people who had years more experience than they did, people who had lived and fought in another war. He had sworn to teach them what he could, and protect them where he had could. He had watched those who he had instructed die when he could not help them.

Harry Potter did not go back on his word. He had sworn to teach the children and protect them and _had_ in fact _died_ to keep that promise so long ago.

So Skull did not take kindly to those who did not teach and protect children as they were meant to.

"He went down first. I shoved him in." the smirk tinted a little more in satisfaction before he frowned. "And then the fool tried to wipe our memories. Tried to hide everything we had seen, tried to make this mess into another of his _books_. Except he used Ron's broken wand and the spell backfired. He hit himself, could not remember his own name, and managed to collapse part of the chamber. I once again walked forward to face the mess on my own."

"The creature that I fought was called a Basilisk. They grow larger and longer as they age and this one was well over 1000 years old." He used his magic to recreate the large beast in the living room, curling the snake into coils when it grew too large to just be in the room with them. "This was the beast I slew at 12 years old with a sword I had no idea how to use." Skull snorted as he stared at the beast. "It could kill you by just _looking_ at you. No going back, just meeting its eyes and then dead. Those it petrified all saw its eyes indirectly."

He lifted his hand to the scar in his arm without thought. "I ended up with a fang stuck in my arm. It almost killed me." The Arcobaleno flinch "It would have killed me, except a phoenix was there to heal me on sight, and this was the moment I shifted from an Inactive to an Active Cloud Flame. It wouldn't have been enough- the phoenix tears and the basilisk venom in my blood stream would have destroyed me from the inside as they fought each other. The strongest healing substance we had and the strongest poison next to undiluted Nundu breath. It was my will to survive, to save Ron's little sister, and to fight the living memory of the man who had killed my parents, the constant pain of dying from the venom, but being healed by the tears at the same time that caused it. My Cloud Flames manifested spectacularly and the propagation ability of my Flames boosted the tears ability to heal me."

Skull stares blankly at the floor as he voices this next thought- a thought he has held close to his chest, terrified it was true "I believe" he whispered "That it is the phoenix tears innate ability to _heal_ …even the most grievous of injuries…mixed with my Flames innate ability to magnify the potency and ability of the tears that has kept me from dying."

"No matter what happened to me after this point" Skull continues to whisper "I would just wake up with nothing to show for whatever had happened to me except for a scar if the wound was bad enough, or if the magic in whatever had hit me was dark and strong enough. No matter how badly I was injured it would take me no time at all to heal. Wounds that should have killed me I would wake up with nothing but a scar to show for it. "

And Skull throws his head back and laughs and it's bitter and sad, angry and jaded, and so, _**so**_ tired. The Hallows had only enhanced the issue from what he could tell. "Immortal Skull." He whispers in the sudden horrified tension in the room.

He sighs and continues before the others can voice anything "I didn't realize any of this back then. I was just determined to live and take the memory of Tom Riddle down. So I forced the issue and I moved. I ripped the fang from my arm, and I stabbed the diary the memory came from. It worked beautifully. And then I staggered my way up, picked up Ron's sister Ginny, and I staggered back to Ron who had managed to clear a path just large enough for us to get out."

He allows his magic to play out the memory of the fight with the Basilisk out to distract the Arcobaleno away from him.

He frowns around the room at the others.

He doesn't have time for this. Not really.

Even if he wanted to tell them everything, he has work to do. A family to save. He had been interrupted so he needed to speed things up a bit. And he wasn't fool enough to believe the others would let him walk away without finishing his explanations.

A hand wave brings him his Pensieve and he begins to quickly pull memories out with one hand and place them into the Pensieve. He covers third year, fourth year, fifth year and sixth year before he stops. He hesitates.

On one hand he didn't want the others to see the soldier in Skull. On the other they already had seen the soldier in him. On the third hand…Skull sort of _wants_ the Arcobaleno to see his strength. They called him weak for so long that Skull kind of _wants them_ to stare the facts in the face and _**understand**_.

He hesitated another moment staring at the silvery strands of his memories.

He makes a choice.

His hand raises to his temple and more memories join the others.

Let them see.

The last memories he adds to the Pensieve are the basics of what he had learned from the man in the bar what seemed like years ago. The plans the Wizarding World has to lure their General back to the front lines on their behalf, or the plans the Neo-Eaters have to draw him out.

Let them see.

Let them _understand._

Flames were who a person was at their core. They represented what a person was like without lies, without masks, without society's rules binding them or blinding them. The Arcobaleno had dismissed the fact that Skull's soul manifested as a _Cloud._

The Elements all lived in the Sky but they revolved around the _Cloud_ and his or her actions and it hadn't crossed the others' minds.

The Cloud that was the first line of defense for the Sky the only other Element as endless as the Sky itself for there was no part of the Sky that did not have clouds to drift across it, Clouds who stirred the Storm and allowed their own Clouds to become Storm Clouds- bringing the Rain and Lightning with them- the Cloud who shaded the others from the intense Sun when it became too much, or shielded the Sun from the eyes of the others when it was too much to shine for the family. The Cloud who was a mirror to the Mist for what was the Mist but a ground bound cloud?

They had been selectively blind because Skull hadn't been Mafia from birth. Because he hadn't known _how_ to use his Flames like everyone else, too used to his magic and to the subtle things he had learned to do with his Flames on his own. Because Skull had been struggling with the aftermath of a war when he first met the others, and all the instincts that told him he could trust no one, he was on a warfront. Struggling with the instinct to use magic that he couldn't use in front of muggles- even Flame using muggles.

Well.

It was time to open their eyes.

He lifts his head to stare at the Arcobaleno who are staring at him.

Yes.

Let them see the Cloud (the world's strongest Cloud) they had dismissed as _weak._


	13. Chapter 13

_IMPOTANT NOTES : READ ME_

 **The scars. Last chapter I mentioned that Skull would wake up with nothing to show for his injuries. This was a case of** bad wording **on my part (which I have gone back to edit). I meant that when he woke up whatever injury had been given to him had healed over to the point it was scarred. Like he had had the injuries for years rather than receiving them moments before. The simple injuries would just be gone, but the magically inflicted wounds would leave marks on his skin despite healing over- he had 'nothing to show for it' because it appeared to have** _ **not happened**_ **to him right then but rather years before. All he had was scars and nothing else. No wound, no bleeding. Sorry for the confusion.**

 **Second: We're gonna hop around Skull-Harry's memories. The Arcobaleno will have seen more than I will cover here of course, but that would take a very long few chapters if we covered them all. SO: we're gonna skip around.**

 _IMPORTANT NOTES ^^^ READ ME._

O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~

Skull tilts his head, his magic disappearing from the room and taking the image of the basilisk with it. "This" he explains, gesturing at the Pensieve "is a Pensieve. Just touch the top of the 'water' there and you will be transported into my memories. It will be easier to show you the coming years, and quicker."

The Arcobaleno see the flash in Skull's eyes as he explains to them. They know whatever it is he is doing, whatever it is that they will soon see it will change things. They don't know how, or how much, but they know there will be _no_ going back.

They know this will be one of those major moments in a person's life- a moment like the Fated Day- where the person categorizes their life into Before and After in regards to that moment.

They reach forward for the 'water' anyway.

Viper is the last to reach for the Pensieve. She knows what is coming after all. Instead she stares at Skull. The others are all 'in' the Pensieve, their bodies frozen and their eyes glazed as their minds prepare to wander in Skull's- Harry's- memories. She lifts her hands to her hood and pulls it back.

Skull blinks in surprise as gleaming silver eyes come into view alongside the black curls that now tumble around the woman's head, "Viper?"

Viper stares at him, blinking for a moment before she speaks. "I am sorry." She tells him, glad that for the moment it is basically only the two of them there for the conversation- the other's inside the Pensieve waiting for Viper to join them- as she speaks. "I am sorry I didn't see _you_ before this. I am sorry it took _this_ for us to begin to see the fighter that you are. I am sorry they called you weak, that I did nothing to defend you from those accusations though I did not speak them. I'm sorry."

And Skull knows how serious she is, her silver eyes staring straight at him and her voice never once wavering. For a moment his eyes pin her and they are hard, jaded, and unwavering.

She meets his stare head on.

Purple eyes soften after few moments as Skull finally blinks. "I won't say that it was _okay._ " Skull tells her "But I understand why you did so. I don't _like_ it, but I understand why. You were always the one to see _me_ best for all that you saw a blurry image. You were also the one to treat me best next to Fon. So I won't say that it was _okay_ , but I will tell you that I forgive you."

That doesn't make everything _okay_ , Skull has problems with the Arcobaleno he will have to work through. They have things they will need to make up for. It will take a long while for everything to sort itself out.

(Skull thinks of the boy from the Cupboard, who was so, so forgiving until he was hardened by war, thinks on the boy who stood in front of the downtrodden, stood for those who had no one else, and he thinks…maybe…for those who are _his_ a bit of that forgiving nature remains. Much like he had forgiven his first Storm when he had wavered.)

Forgiveness for Skull means that he will give the others an honest chance. A chance to show Skull they have learned from what he will show them. A chance to _prove_ they are loyal. To _prove_ they will stand with him as he stands with them. So he forgives Viper. He gives her that chance. And after the others have seen what is in his memories he will forgive _them_.

After this…after this it is all up to the Arcobaleno.

Despite the issues, despite the pain, despite all the things they will have to work through Skull will give them the chance to actually work through them. It's all on them now. Skull had made his move, made his choice. The ball was in their court now.

Viper blinks. She doesn't feel like she's earned that forgiveness, but she doesn't say so. She just makes herself the promise that she will _earn_ it on her terms. She nods instead and turns to the Pensieve. She reaches forward and touches the memories.

Skull stares at the Arcobaleno circled around his Pensieve and blinks. The memories will happen at the speed of thought, which means they will get though his memories much quicker than they would have if he had told them, but there is still a lot of memories for them to cover, and Skull has people to save.

He lifts a hand, his Magic swelling with intent and focus, his Flames raising beside his Magic as he strengthens his Magic's purpose. He lays the foundations of strong wards.

The wards will stop anyone from entering the room while the Arcobaleno are using his Pensive, will make their location uninteresting and invisible to any who did not already reside in the walls. He provides the Arcobaleno the protection he can while they are vulnerable inside the Pensive.

After that Skull stands and leaves the room. They would know how to find him once they left the Pensive. He had a family to save in the meantime.

O~O~O~O~O~O~

Once Viper arrives- her hood back up- in the Pensieve the white world the Arcobaleno had been waiting in shimmers.

Skull comes into being, but he doesn't stare at them. He stares _through_ them. "I set this up like a movie." The Skull-that-is-not-Skull speaks "You will have the ability to pause and rewind the memories while you are here. Remember that these are memories and there is nothing you can do for anyone inside these memories."

Another shimmer and suddenly they are standing in front of a young black haired green eyed version of their Cloud who is washing the dishes.

Verde speaks after a moment of staring at him, his mind flashing through all the information he can gather from this glimpse of the boy. He's seeing all the signs of an abused malnourished child.

He…doesn't like that. And he's not…not quite sure why. He just _really_ doesn't like it.

He doesn't like what the tub of lard at the table is saying about Skull's parents either. Neither does Skull, for the boy turns and those green eyes are shining with power as he growls and snaps back. The lights shatter, the dishes are breaking and fixing themselves behind him and he advances on the woman who had been speaking so badly of the dead.

To the surprise of the Arcobaleno the woman begins to expand (after a sharp crack from their Cloud about 'being full of hot air' and an angry but carefully targeted mini-rant) and then float away.

Reborn's lips twitch. He can't quite help it. He finds the image of the woman 'full of hot air' floating away to be an amusing one.

Family has always been sacred ground for Reborn. They were to be protected and shielded, to be taught to stand on their own. They were meant to have loyalty and be loyal in return. They were to be respected.

Reborn had nothing but the upmost respect for parents that had stepped into the path of certain death on behalf of their child. There was no greater sacrifice, and that sacrifice deserved nothing but the upmost respect.

(Reborn knows that if someone had said anything like what had come out of that woman- Marge- about _his_ mother he would have shot her, and he would have made sure it _hurt_ )

O~O~O~O~O~O~

The Minister earns quite a few glares for all the man can't see the Arcobaleno.

They are seasoned mafia. They see the things the man _doesn't_ say and it makes them angry. Especially since it regards their Cloud.

Fon frowns severely at the man. This was the Minister. The man who stood at the top of the Magical Government. This man who, from what he can see of him, _abuses his position_. Fon isn't blind the signs are everywhere for those who know how to look. In the way he holds himself, the tics the man can't hide from the Arcobaleno, in what he says and in what he _doesn't_ say. It's in his very actions.

Fon sort of wants to drop kick the man in the chin.

It's an odd feeling. One he hasn't had since he was a very young man still struggling to find his 'eye' in the Storm of his soul. (He doesn't yet know how strong the urge is going to get.)

O~O~O~O~O~O~

It is obvious to Viper how Skull- Harry- had been led around by the nose. The boy is thirteen and they aren't telling him information. _Information is gold._ Especially in regards to the protection of those who she shields in her Mists and these _fools_ are hiding things from her Cloud.

How dare they.

Viper watches the subtle things that happen around her Cloud, the things the adults around him are whispering about, how the whispers die in his presence, the stares that follow him around…

Her frown is severe as she peers around.

O~O~O~O~O~O~

Yuni fidgets. She had seen all of this already- or well _parts_ of it- but it's different to be so close to her brother figure when she knows what it coming. It's different when she knows what is coming and he almost looks to be in arms reach, like she could touch him or stop him to explain what will happen. It's different to be standing next to the others when she is seeing this pass.

Yuni looks around at the others. They're tense, and quiet. Their eyes are intense and focused in a way that had made them the best of their fields. Except this is directed at the situation one of their own has found himself in.

They don't know what's coming.

Yuni does.

She takes a breath.

O~O~O~O~O~O~

Colonnello and Lal are still as they watch the memories of their Cloud play out. They know some things are missing from the sequence of events, but a large chunk of them are present.

It's painting a picture they _can't believe they missed_.

They were _better_ than that, they should have _seen_. They had been blinded though. Blinded by the 'knowledge' that the Cloud hadn't been Mafia or Military before the Curse.

They wanted to scoff.

'Knowledge.'

They had been _blind_.

O~O~O~O~O~O~

Skull slides back into the Wizarding World with no fanfare, easily picking up where he had left off. He gathers the relative information and begins looking for where the Neo-Eaters had scuttled to hide in the short time he had been gone.

He sneers to himself.

 _Rats_ , the lot of them. _Vermin_.

He would take pleasure in disposing of them.

And may God have mercy on them if any of his family had been hurt, because _Skull_ would not.

O~O~O~O~O~O~

The Arcobaleno watched the year Harry finds out about his Godfather and the supposed 'betrayal' the man had committed. (Reborn's killing intent is strong at the knowledge of the betrayal. He couldn't even _imagine_ betraying his family. It is _enraging_ that someone had done so to their Cloud and his family.)

They see Dementors for the first time, and are horrified when they hear a man scream _Lilly it's him! Take Harry and run, I'll hold him off_ followed by a woman's voice screaming _Not Harry, please not Harry! Take me instead! Not Harry, please!_

It's not difficult to put two and two together when they find out about Dementors bringing a person's worse memories to the forefront as they feed on happiness and joy.

As Mafia they had seen their fair share of mother's begging for their children's lives. It was a fact despite not one of the Arcobaleno taking contracts on children. It was entirely different to hear _their Cloud's_ parents' final moments.

O~O~O~O~O~O~

They walk beside their Cloud as he goes through his third year.

They are tense as they witness the aftermath of Black trying to get into the place Harry sleeps. They are tenser still at the presence of the Dementors around their Cloud's school and all the other children. They are tense as they witness the treatment Harry is subjected to.

They are proud as their Cloud masters the Patronus Charm especially after discovering how difficult it is for even fully grown wizards to do.

They watch as the boy - Ron - stands in front of their Cloud on a broken leg and snarls that if the murderer- Black- wants to kill Harry he would have to kill them too. They watch as the girl- Hermione- slides in between Black and their Cloud.

Respect blooms in their chest for the children who had stood in defense of their Cloud.

The Arcobaleno scowl as it is revealed that Black was framed and the man to betray the Potters was in fact the rat that had been so close to Harry for years now. They blink at the sight of Harry's Cloud temper rearing its head during the course of that discussion.

Tense worry is present as Lupin is revealed to be a werewolf. A bit of respect blooms for Black when the man changes into a large Grim and lunges to meet the werewolf before he can attack the children.

Surprise is evident in the Arcobaleno's eyes for an instant as the Time Turner is revealed and used. (And if plots are made on the side to see if Skull can get ahold of some for them- well. They're Mafia. Of course they're going to ask.)

They watch the rest of the year pass by and the memories skim through the summer months. It doesn't stop the Arcobaleno form developing a bit of hate for the Dursley family.

It also doesn't stop the horror from welling up inside as they are suddenly hit by how _similarly_ they have treated their Cloud. It doesn't stop the horror as they watch someone _else_ do to their Cloud what _they_ have done and it dawns on them that they had treated a _human being,_ _ **their Cloud**_ , no better than an animal to be _conditioned_ to obey them through pain. ( _They were going to be sick_ )

The images shimmer and stop as Viper pauses the images. She knows year four of Harry Potter's life is where everything _truly_ begins. She knows it is the true start of the war and she wants the Arcobaleno to be entirely focused as they witness it so she gives them the moment they need as their world view is shifted.

She knows by the end of the Pensieve memories it will have been _shattered_.

O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~

 **Fourth year is a big year, so I'm gonna stop this here.**


	14. Chapter 14

Skull was scowling as he stalked through the streets.

The fuckers had gone to ground.

 _Apparently_ the fact that Skull had taken out that stupid 'Earth-shaker' in their party (and everyone that had been present at the time) had caused those left to panic. Especially after the 'Purple Cloud' (he had a name now. From that violet tribal cloud mark he left at all the sights of his work. It was boring. Wizards were horrible at naming things) had disappeared.

They seemed to be under the impression Skull was _plotting_ something. A large strike against them that required he stop systematically murdering them.

Unfortunately this meant they were behind some serious Wards, and had applied some serious security measures while he was gone from them.

Oh, it wouldn't _stop_ Skull. It just made everything _much_ more difficult which made him rather angry.

He was kind of tempted to live up to their expectations and plot something _big._

O~O~O~O~

This fourth year had started on a high note. Their Cloud was going to the Quidditch World Cup with the Weasley family. It was refreshing to see Harry _happy_ to see him _excited_.

They were beginning to learn however, that every time their Cloud was excited about something, _something else_ went wrong. It was Murphy's Law at its finest.

And so they witnessed the attack that took place after the match.

The screaming crowds and the 'Muggles' (The Arcobaleno were just thinking of them as 'Civilians' in their heads) who owned the grounds being tormented.

They watched as Harry got right in the middle of the action. How he struck out at the enemy around him. How he was separated from his group, but still managed to hold his own. They watched their Cloud's eyes harden before he took control of those around him- calling out orders and shifting them around to better defend each other and the Muggles.

They watched Harry fight, twisting around spells, shooting off his own, and snapping commands.

And watching that- watching their Cloud in that situation- it hits them. It dawns on them that Harry James Potter- Skull De Mort- is a _General_.

Oh they know that right _now_ it's the beginning stages. Right at that moment Harry was simply a natural leader taking control of an out of control situation. But it's the beginning- it's the start.

And they wonder absently if they're _really_ ready to see the warrior- the _**survivor**_ \- in their Cloud. If they're ready to have the wool ripped away from their eyes completely. Ready for the cloud cover to disappear from where it had shielded them from the truth.

When it's over and the magical police show up (much too late and next to useless the Arcobaleno note with disgust) nothing is really done. It's all blustering and scrambling and the Minister trying to bury the whole mess under a rug.

It's enraging.

Especially as they watch their Cloud's eyes harden and _burn_ with anger as he watches it all. (The Arcobaleno are all intensely relieved to note they can still read the body language of their Cloud. They can see the rage, the anger, the disgust in the line of his back, the stiffness of his shoulders, and the tilt of his head.)

(They will later realize that all the body language they had learned to read off their Cloud was his actual body language. Skull had just learned to portray the body language he _wanted_ to be seen rather than his true feelings.)

They watch as their Cloud slips back into the shadows, blending out of sight of the adults before he slipped back into the crowd of students. They watch as he goes to the students and whispers the truth of what happened to them, tells them to warn others, tells them the adults are ignoring the truth that sat in front of them. They watch the students their Cloud had chosen nod, their eyes hard and slip away to spread the news.

The image of the General solidifies in their minds.

O~O~O~O~

Skull is pissed.

Not only are the Neo-Eaters hiding behind wards, but every time they step out of the protection of said wards they have body guards and protection amulets and enchantments on their person. It's going to be exceedingly difficult to get to them.

Skull isn't sure what he'd going to do, but their sheer stubborn annoyances are ensuring that whatever he does, he's going to live up to the peoples' expectations and make it _big_.

And painful.

And time consuming.

Like the decoding of the damn wards the bastards were hiding behind.

Skull snarls as he runs into another snag trying to figure out how to pull the wards down- even if it is just enough for him to get inside.

Just getting inside would be enough. And if the hole was small enough the wards would act against their owners and hide the massacre from the public until Skull is already finished with everyone inside.

It would be a real shock factor.

Especially since once Skull was _inside_ the wards all he would need to do to get rid of all the wards was find the ward stone and either shut it down or destroy it. So one moment all would be normal and the next a massacre would be visible. He smirked to himself. He knew the effect a good strong shock and awe campaign would have. He'd _seen_ the effects over the war and then during his stint in the mafia.

The terror that would take his enemies at the idea that not even wards could stop him would be absolutely _delicious_. Would cause panic which would lead to mistakes and allow Skull to expand on the terror in a repeating cycle until Skull stood victorious over the scum.

(Reborn had rubbed off on him over the years. That was _such_ a Reborn thought, but he didn't care. War and life in the Underworld changed a man and there were absolutely worse people he could pick up habits from then the Arcobaleno.)

But in order to get to that point he had to destroy the wards in his way.

Skull frowned as he stared at the tome in his hands.

He wondered if he could overload the wards if he used his Flames...maybe even a combination of magic and Flames…?

O~O~O~O~

The Arcobaleno watch with warm eyes as Harry spends the time after the Quidditch Match at the 'Burrow'. They watch the family welcome their Cloud into their home and ranks without thought. They watch as Harry smiles with them and are shocked at the difference between Harry and Skull.

Viper flinches a little when it hits her that the reason for the change is the upcoming war Harry will lead.

She commits the faces of the Weasleys to memory. The family that had taken their Cloud in deserved to be remembered and she would ensure that they were.

She knew even as she committed their likeness to memory the other Arcobaleno were doing the same.

O~O~O~O~

The Arcobaleno find themselves in the halls of Hogwarts once again.

They witness their Cloud shifting as his instincts prickle that 'something is coming'. They witness the anger over the canceling of Quidditch and then the excitement of the children when the Triwizard Tournament is revealed to be the reason why.

They witness their Cloud's nervousness that something will go wrong, and they witness his hope for a quiet year compared to the others. They watch the entrance of the competing schools, the way Harry slides between their ranks and asks questions about what their schools are like.

They see the night names are drawn from the Cup and Harry's horror as his name falls from Dumbledore's lips.

They watch as once again Harry is isolated from the people around him due to what happened. They watch as the Storm-Ron- loses his temper and turns from their Cloud while the Lightning-Hermione- refuses to move from Harry's side.

They are angry for their Cloud despite knowing that they can change nothing in a memory of what has already happened.

The Arcobaleno smirk as Harry's Slytherin side stirs and they watch the boy slink through the shadows gathering information, as he manipulates situations and people, as he cheats to find out what he will be facing in the First Task.

They watch in surprised horror as Harry discovers exactly what he was supposed to face in the First Task.

Mother Dragons.

 _ **Nesting**_ Mother Dragons.

Harry panics as he scrambles for any way he can fight a dragon and the Arcobaleno watch it all with disbelief.

Dragons.

 _ **Dragons**_.

They're not sure what to do with that information. Dragons hadn't even been a _thought_ for most of them beyond fantasy books and now they have to watch their _baby Cloud_ face one.

When the time comes to choose what they're fighting from a bag the Arcobaleno are still and stating as Harry reaches into the bag.

And pulls out the fiercest and most violent of the set: the Horntail.

They watch their Cloud's face lose its color as the blood drains from his face. They wait at his side, listening as the older more experienced Wizards and Witch struggle to complete the task they had been given.

They step out into the ring at their Cloud's side and their breath catches at the first sight of the great dragon standing at the opposite side of the ring.

They are experienced murders. The best the Mafia has to offer in their fields and still their hearts stutter and then speed up at the sight of the apex predator in front of them. When they glance back at their Cloud the little 14 year old is still pale, but his face has hardened and they can see the determination in the line of his shoulders as he stares at the Horntail.

They're proud of him.

O~O~O~O~

More than once over the next few minutes the Arcobaleno reach for weapons to help their Cloud and Yuni grabs the nearest arm or hand hard enough to leave bruises.

It is one thing to know their Cloud is about to fight a dragon. It's another thing entirely to actually _**see**_ their 14-year-old Cloud roll behind boulders in a frantic attempt to dodge streams of fire, to witness a nesting dragon's rage, to watch the frantic spell work of their Cloud as he struggles to give himself the time he needs.

They watch with their hearts in their throats, with their fists clenched so hard they would have left bloody crescents in their palms had they not been in a memory, as their Cloud slings himself onto his Firebolt.

O~O~O~O~

The Arcobaleno are amazed as they watch their Cloud _outfly_ a dragoness. It's the sort of impressive most would view Fon in a martial arts match, Reborn taking a crack shot, Viper crafting her illusion with.

In other words: it's breathtaking and impossible and seemingly effortless on their Cloud's behalf.

And then the dragon breaks free of its binds.

And the Arcobaleno's hearts freeze in their chests.

O~O~O~O~

Reborn has the insane thought that he's finally solved the mystery of _why_ Skull had done the death-defying stunts he had. If he had been doing things like _out flying pissed off mother dragons_ at fourteen the other stunts probably hadn't seemed very dangerous at all.

He's also very sharply ashamed of himself which is a feeling he's not accustom to having at all.

Witnessing their Cloud's childhood (if it could be called that) as he was, witnessing his home life and the horrifying parallels between their treatment of Harry and his treatment of Skull…Reborn knows it may not be a feeling he's used to having but it's one he deserved to feel all the same.

O~O~O~O~

The Arcobaleno _run_ to their Cloud shocked and panicked cries escaping them all in one way or another as they witness the tail of the great dragoness bite into their Cloud's back.

They can't do anything in a memory they know.

It doesn't stop them from running towards him anyway.

O~O~O~O~

Reborn's Sun Instincts _scream_ at him to heal Skull. He's not very happy that he can't.

That it's all a memory he can only watch.

He relaxes a bit when Poppy heals Harry in the Med Tent, but he's still tense that he can't _check_.

He resolves to himself that he was going to look over Skull's injuries no matter their age when he gets out of the memories whether Skull likes it or not.

O~O~O~O~

The Arcobaleno watch in amusement as Harry is taught how to dance and turns out to not be very good at it. _**Skull**_ is actually very good on the dancefloor and Lal spares a moment to wonder when Skull had improved on this skill.

They watch as Harry works out the second clue with a bit of help, and are horrified to hear the riddle inside the egg.

Harry hadn't put the pieces together as quickly as the Arcobaleno, that the 'dearly missed' thing was actually a _person_. The Arcobaleno can see it immediately though and they are horrified to think of what that will do to Harry and his Cloud Instincts.

The Wizarding World has _**no idea**_ what they're poking.

O~O~O~O~

When the day comes, and Harry goes into the Lake with Gillyweed (Verde has a bit of a Nerd Attack and _really_ wants to experiment with it) the Arcobaleno prove right to worry.

The moment Harry sees the hostages under the lake he _**snarls**_ and the water around him _boils_ as his Flames surface sharply and enraged. It actually turns out to be worse than the Arcobaleno planned, when they see that _**both**_ of Harry's 'heart-siblings' are under the water as well as a _**child**_ that Harry _knows_ to be Fire-Natured and therefore not meant to be submerged underwater for long lengths of time. He doesn't know the fourth, but he wonders if she had even been asked- if any of the hostages had been asked (Because if they had been he knows the Fire Child at least would have said no.)

Harry wastes no time in approaching the four hostages and burning the ropes. It takes him the work of a few seconds to tie the ropes together and then around his waist.

The Merfolk try to stop him, but all they succeed in doing is getting burned as Harry snarls at them, his green eyes flaring a bright vivid violet.

In the end Harry gets out of the lake, dragging the four previous hostages with him, and trailing after him are Victor and Cedric as Fleur had been forced to retreat thanks to the lake creatures. He doesn't give any of the Judges the time to say a word as he pulls the now conscious coughing hostages up onto the makeshift deck and then whirls around.

He _**snarls**_ threats and rages at them over their stupidity. Not one of the adults are given a moment to speak, as Harry lays into their choices and actions. As he asks questions in the now silent stadium surrounding the lake.

His Flames are flaring bright and wild around him, and Harry doesn't even notice how he has shifted to place the four used as hostages behind him, but everyone else has noticed, and it doesn't matter that Harry is standing there, slim, skinny and half naked- he is the most intimidating thing they had ever seen.

The Arcobaleno watch the first time the Wizarding World experiences a Cloud's Rage.

They laugh.

O~O~O~O~

Skull has so far managed to discover that in order to 'break' a ward he needs to overwhelm it if he can't get to the ward-stone.

He frowns at the newest tome to grace his hands. He doesn't want to _break_ the wards- he wants to crack them just enough to slip inside.

It's going to be a careful balancing act. Not to mention that when he touches the wards, he's going to trigger them and let whoever was inside know he was there.

That's a problem.

He doesn't want his prey to run after all, which means _**research**_.

Damn.

O~O~O~O~

The Third Task approaches and the Arcobaleno are nervous.

They know it is a maze that their Cloud will need to navigate, but that isn't what has them nervous. No it's their Cloud's nervousness that stirs their own. They recognize that Harry's instincts are screaming at him, though none of them can pinpoint about what.

They watch their Cloud pour over as many books as he can manage, as he stays up late and gets up early to practice and read ahead. They watch as he flourishes as he applies himself (and they try very hard not to remember the Dursleys had beaten it into their Cloud to not do well, to downplay his intelligence) and devours anything put in front of him. They watch as he ignores House boundaries in his quest to survive, and makes friends in all four Houses. They watch Hermione help as much as she can, researching right beside their Cloud and Verde can see it now. He can see what Skull meant when he said Hermione was a woman he would have liked, who he could have talked _to_ rather than _at_.

He wishes he had gotten to meet her.

(He isn't the only one.)

O~O~O~O~

The Arcobaleno follow beside their Cloud as he enters into the maze. They walk with him and watch in mixed awe and worry as he faces creatures of myth, traps and illusions. There are many obstacles in his way, but all that studying had paid off as Harry works his way through the maze.

(They only hope there is not another dragon to be found inside.)

(Later they will wish it _had_ been a dragon to find Harry.)

They are proud when Harry makes it to the center of the maze.

And they are whisked away alongside Harry and Cedric when the boys touch the Triwizard Cup.

O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~

 **Skull** _ **argued**_ **with me** _ **the entire chapter.**_ **He wanted to do it** _ **his**_ **way and was** not **having it when I tried to argue. The next bit will go really AU to what happened with the HP books. Some things will stick, but the aftermath and such…that's gonna change.**

 **ALSO.** _850_ _ **reviews you guys**_ **. I'm screaming. When/If I hit 1000 I want to do a special or something. So what do you guys want to see? Let me know!**

 **The Slip Up AU I mentioned is up by the way for those of you who haven't seen it yet.**

 **8/10/16: Edits because I posted this at like 4am and made mistakes. XD**


	15. Chapter 15

**I have a poll up on my profile in regards to that 1000 reviews special I need you all to vote in so go take a look~**

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Harry lands with a thud, flat on his stomach, in the middle of a graveyard.

The Arcobaleno can't quite manage to stop the instinctive response as they drop into defensive positions and circle the boys, because every single one of their instincts _scream_ that this situation is about to get dangerous.

It doesn't do any good as Harry and Cedric straighten up and the graveyard busts into movement.

They watch with horror as a voice snarls "Kill the Spare!" even as Harry rolls to his feet, his wand out and ready to attack. They see that bright, bright green spell fly forward and slam into Cedric.

They watch the boy drop like a puppet with his stings cut. No gasp, no voice, no warning. Just the sound of a body hitting the ground.

(And the Arcobaleno have heard about the Killing Curse all of Harry's school years, but it only _truly_ hits them right here- watching Cedric fall- how _**instant**_ the death is. That it truly is a Killing Curse.)

(That their Cloud had survived it.)

And then they hear Harry _roar_ and suddenly spells are flying, and the black-robed men and women around them are dropping to Blasting curses and multiple Sectumsempra, as Harry rages a path across his enemies, headed straight for the man that used the Killing Curse. A man they recognize to be Peter Pettigrew.

If they could have, the Arcobaleno would have raged with their Cloud across the battlefield.

(And there is nothing, _**nothing**_ , more terrifying then an entire Element Set in complete harmony on the battlefield.)

(It's actually where some of the 'Bringers of the Apocalypse' myths came from.)

The Arcobaleno are reduced to observers, however, and so they are forced to watch as their Cloud is eventually overwhelmed by numbers and a red spell- they recognize a stunner- hits him in the shoulder.

He doesn't collapse.

They are the only ones that know what the gleaming violet eyes staring at the Death Eaters mean, the only witness to a Cloud- their Cloud- raging, and it takes over ten stunners hitting him at the same time for Harry to go down.

The memory goes black, but only for an instant.

The next time the Arcobaleno can see their surroundings it is to see their Cloud limp and held against the statue of an angel. The scythe the angel holds is pinning their Cloud in such a way he won't be able to get out easily.

They tense sharply at the sight of it, and more than one set of hands reaches for a weapon they don't have.

It doesn't matter that they all know it's a memory, that they can't do anything to anyone inside of it. _**This is their Cloud**_.

Their family.

And family is _everything_.

So of course they move to help him.

Fon is the one to reach for the statue first, his eyes bright red, with every intent to snap it under his hands.

He fazes through it.

And the Arcobaleno stop, remembering they can't stop what has already come to pass.

Yuni makes a distressed noise. She had seen some of what was about to happen in visions. Now she will have to relive it _knowing_ who the boy on the statue is, next to the Arcobaleno, and while Harry appears to be in arms reach. She kind of wants to cry.

(And there's a flashback in there to the Future that Never Was, about _**why**_ Skull had been in that clearing mowing down enemies before the headshot took him down. He'd done it because they had gone after Yuni.)

Her hands clench hard for a moment before they rise up automatically to fold in front of her chest as if in prayer.

She watches with her heart in her throat as Harry is woke up.

O~O~O

The Arcobaleno watch as Harry focuses on the large cauldron in front of him, watch his eyes narrow and widen in turn before he starts scanning the surroundings.

They watch in horror as the next few minutes pass with a ritual. They snarl in time with Harry when Peter comes closer to him and drags a knife down his arm.

(They remember the scar they had seen on Skull's arm just there, and then it hits them.

 _They will see where each of their Cloud's multiple scars came from._ )

The Arcobaleno see the purple bleeding into green eyes as the ritual progresses. They watch with rage in their hearts as the so called 'Lord Voldemort' steps from the caldron and approaches Harry. They tune out most of the rant that follows, but they all flinch when Harry scream-snarls as Voldemort touches his scar.

It is nothing compared to the scream that escapes Harry's lips when he is hit with torture curse. He cuts the scream off seconds after it escaped, choking them back, but the tenseness of his muscles and the way Harry strains against the statue tells them it still hurts. And they all know that that few seconds Harry- their Skull- screamed will echo in their dreams from that moment forward.

Viper cries out with him, her hand flying out to _**murder**_ Voldemort, her eyes shining indigo under her hood, and this time it is Reborn that pauses the memories when Viper rages.

She remembers that curse.

She knows, intimately, how much that hurts.

She never wanted to see _**anyone**_ she shielded in her Mists subjected to that. Seeing Skull…one of _hers_ tense and strain under that curse…Viper wants to _**kill**_ Voldemort, wants to _**break**_ him the way he is trying to break Harry. She couldn't stop her reaction- a reaction born from understanding exactly what Harry was going through- if she had tried.

When she calms she has to explain to the others. She has to explain that she _knows_ that curse, that it had been used against her. She explains that it targets _**every single nerve**_ in the body and makes it feel like white-hot knifes are stabbing and _twisting_ into them.

They have to sit there with the memory paused for another few minutes when the other Arcobaleno need to calm themselves after they understand.

O~O~O~

When the memories start again, the Arcobaleno are tense.

Harry's eyes flash open and they see _bright_ violet, watch as what looks like very light purple mist begins to rise off Harry's body, nearly unnoticeable even to them.

The next time Harry arches against the statue it shatters.

(The Arcobaleno realize suddenly that they are seeing the first time Harry used his Cloud Flames to increase his strength and shatter his binds.)

Harry drops and staggers only to stand straight, and lash out with his legs.

Bodies fly.

They watch as their Cloud realizes his wand is in his pocket, as he pulls it free and spells join the physical attacks.

He works his way through everyone in his way as he heads straight for Cedric's body and the Cup.

They are swept up alongside the two boys a second time when Harry gets ahold of the Cup and Cedric's body.

They arrive to cheers that quickly turn into screams.

Harry is up and crouching over Cedric's body as soon as he lands, his face twisted in a snarl and his eyes shining violet as he scans his surroundings with his wand up and ready. He makes for a shocking figure with the blood trailing down his face like war paint (from the statue shrapnel scoring a hit as he escaped) the dirt and dust coating his form, the blood trailing down his arm, and the blood trailing down his leg from one of the huge spiders in the maze. With the snarl pained across his face and his wand poised to attack he looks just as dangerous as he really is.

Children are still screaming while the teachers rush down towards Harry, whose eyes have started to regain hints of green now that he knows where he is.

"Harry!?"

"He's back." Harry warns them and he only moves from his defensive crouch over Cedric when Cedric's father rushes over. "I'm sorry Mr. Diggory." He tells the man and shakes his head "Voldemort killed him"

The Arcobaleno watch the following chaos as the Minister denies everything, as the adults are either horrified or in denial, as a father mourns his son, as Harry is rushed off the field in silence.

They watch the discovery of Moody being impersonated the entire year by a 'dead' man. They witness Barty tie their Cloud to a chair and crouch down in front of him to ask about the Third Task and 'his Master's return.' They watch Harry snarl and the lightning quick kick that sends Crouch sprawling even as the chair tumbles into the desk which stops it from falling over. They watch their Cloud use the few seconds it takes Crouch to get up to break the chair which causes the ropes to loosen and fall.

When Harry stands, he's holding the two back legs of the chair in either hand. The first slings through the air like an arrow and hits Crouch in the chest, knocking him back over, while the second is used like a bat and snaps over the man's head when Harry knocks him out.

The Arcobaleno are proud of their baby Cloud even as they are angry Harry hasn't been taken to the hospital wing and to Poppy.

They only get angrier when the teachers come to the 'rescue' too late and take Harry to the Headmaster's Office instead of to Poppy so they can ask questions.

It's a unanimous thought amongst the Arcobaleno that the teachers are being _stupid_.

O~O~O~

That summer things change.

Harry knows Voldemort is back, that the man will stop at nothing to kill him. So he moves to prepare. He signs up for and joins a summer camp that is basically Military Boot Camp. The man in charge turns out to be a squib and a war veteran which is a good thing for Harry who explains Voldemort's return and the Wizarding World's reactions.

The Vet- nicknamed Hound-takes Harry under his wing. He teaches Harry everything he can from firearms to fighting dirty. He teaches tactics and the art of patience. He works Harry into the ground over and over and over again only build him back up stronger and better.

The Arcobaleno learn that it is Hound who teaches Harry to reign in his Cloud Temper (though the man had no idea he'd managed it). It is Hound that puts up with and helps Skull through the nightmares that follow.

It is Hound that teaches Harry to survive in hostile conditions, who helps bulk their Cloud up with muscles.

It's survival now, and Harry is planning to win.

O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O

 **Alright! Fifth year and more changes is next.**

 **Also: I'm looking for a cover pic for this fic which means a** CONTEST FOR MY ARTIST READERS **if anyone is interested! I will leave this contest open until** SEPTEMBER 10th!

 **The winner will get a** one shot of their choice **as a reward so please PM me if you're interested in participating!**


	16. Chapter 16

**don't even know what to do with myself anymore. You're all glorious human beings and I am a mess. When I started this it never even crossed my mind I would get anywhere NEAR 1000 Reviews, and here we are less than 10 away. (Edit- IT HAPPENED OHMYGOD)**

 **Someone asked how Harry knew Sectumsempra when it was in Snape's potion book. I mentioned Harry dove into research during his fourth year, but** _ **apparently**_ **I edited out the part that mentioned he found the 'Half Blood Prince' book then. Oops.**

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The Arcobaleno rage silently as they join Harry in his fifth year only to see the smear campaign the Ministry is leading with the help of _The Daily Prophet_. They are not happy to watch an entire population with very few exceptions (most of which are _children_ ) ignore the warnings, ignore the problems, ignore the war coming and stick their heads in the sand.

It disgusts the Arcobaleno.

O~O~O~

Skull is not happy. His research isn't helping him too much. Most of the books keep saying the only way he will be able to get into wards he is not keyed into is if he overwhelms the wards, or if he is invited inside.

If he tries to destroy the wards, his prey will be warned he is coming and escape.

The only way he can see everything working is if he gets invited inside, or if he manages to kill his targets when they step outside the wards' protection. If he kills the owner of the wards, they will fall and leave anyone hiding inside open to Skull.

He hums, running his options through his mind as he stares at the newest tome.

He _could_ impersonate somebody else and slip inside the wards with an invitation that way. He'd need to do it without magic though or the wards would trigger and warn his prey.

That left the old fashioned civilian way, or the use of Mist Flames.

Skull shook his head. First things first. He'd see if he could find his targets outside their manors to kill them that way.

(He wondered absently if Verde would be able to create a portable device to stop apparation or portkey use around the target.)

O~O~O~

When Harry steps into the school, the Arcobaleno watch quietly. They watch him reach out to the friends in the various Houses that he had made the year before and begin networking.

They witness the General in their Cloud blooming into use as he begins working to strengthen his position and view. As he begins to counter the work the Ministry and Prophet had done to discredit him.

They are proud to see as it begins to work, even with the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher- Umbridge- there to try and discredit him from within the school.

And when Umbridge gets rid of all practical work, relying instead on theory the Arcobaleno are just as disgusted and angry as Harry.

The Arcobaleno watch the next series of events with surprise, but especially Reborn who- though he will never admit to it- loves teaching.

Harry takes to forming a club he calls the Defense Association where Harry teaches anyone and everyone who wants to join how to protect themselves.

He uses the teachings and routine he had been taught by Hound as well as all the practical uses he could come up with in regards to magic as his lessons.

He works the students around him into the ground just as he had been. He breaks and rebuilds them into stronger versions of themselves. They sweat, they bleed, they gasp for air…but they improve.

Colonnello is silent as he watches an army form around him. He is silent as he watches Harry flourish at the head of this army, as one of his students jokingly answers him with 'Yes Commander!' when he calls out an order, and how the nickname sticks.

He watches as the nickname goes from something Harry was jokingly called, an endearment, to a title- something that shows his students' respect for him.

And Colonnello mourns that he had never seen the _leader_ in Skull who took on so much as Harry, who was willing to step up when all others- even the adults- stepped back. Who, Colonnello realizes with a start, had always been willing to step up to the plate when no one else would even as Skull.

(He remembers seeing the memories of Skull in the Future That Never Was. Of a Skull who shook with the effects of the poison in the air, but had still stepped out to face the army when they came for Yuni. Who had stood between an army and the others and never once faltered, never let an enemy step past him. A Skull who had fought viciously on their behalf, to buy them the time to get the little Sky out of there. Who didn't go down no matter his injuries, no matter the poison in the air chipping away at him, no matter his enemy until a sniper managed a headshot.)

(Colonnello remembers raging himself after watching Skull go down, how he had stalked the sniper responsible afterwards and _killed him_ for it despite needing to go out and be exposed to the poison to do it.)

They had missed so much.

Colonnello swears to make it up to his Cloud.

O~O~O~

Harry is a Cloud. Umbridge pushes all his buttons, not matter how well Harry manages his fury temper, hides his loathing behind cyanide smiles and silken words. It is only a matter of time before he ends up in detention with the woman looking for any sort of reason to give Harry one.

They watch in silence as Harry is told to write lines. They see the narrowed eyes, the silent knowledge that something is off with the picture in front of Harry though Harry isn't exactly sure what the problem is.

And so it is that the Arcobaleno watch with horrified rage as the woman uses Blood Quills to make children write lines. As Harry writes the sentence 'I must not tell lies' over and over and over again.

So many times that the magic of the Quills cannot heal the marks.

So many times that the sentence is scarred into the back of his hand.

They rage silently as Harry goes to a teacher and is told to 'keep his head down'. As Harry realizes with horror that Umbridge wasn't just targeting him, but _all_ the children. The anger as Harry decides that if no one else will do anything he _will_.

They watch as Harry goes to the friends he made in the four houses and asks them to meet him in the Room of Requirement with all the children that had seen Umbridge. And they see how he is obeyed without question.

He is their General, though it is obvious to the Arcobaleno that none of them, Harry or the others, realize that fact yet.

Reborn mourns that he had not truly seen the teacher, the protector, in his Cloud as he watches Harry's actions.

Once the children are gathered together, Harry asks them to come to him, holding a large bowl in his hands. They watch as Harry soothes the nervous children like he had been born for it, how he asks to see their writing hands, and how the children no matter their age offer up their hands.

They can see the suppressed rage in his eyes as one by one the injuries are revealed. The red irritated skin, the open wounds, the few who had written so much they would scar as Harry would. And they watch the gentle way that Harry takes their hands and places them in the bowl, as he heals and soothes the wounds of the people around him.

Reborn mourns for what he missed. For ever doubting the strength of his Cloud. He swears to himself that he will never doubt Skull in this way again.

O~O~O~

The year passes and Harry slowly but surely takes over most of the school.

The Arcobaleno watch as the children around them are shaped and molded into an army. They watch as the children develop muscle and stamina, as Harry teaches them to fight to survive what is to come, as he teaches them to work together, teaches tactics and battle plans. As he breaks down House barriers and teaches the children to do all of this without letting the teachers around them see how much the inner structure of the school has changed.

They are there when Umbridge threatens their Cloud with the Torture Curse (and more than one of the Arcobaleno try to part her head from her shoulders for it).

They watch as the Prophet comes in and talks of 'disappearances' and 'missing people'. They see the beginning of the war. As Harry steps up training in response to it, and how the students push themselves harder and harder to keep up with the lengths Harry pushes himself to.

They are there when Harry gets Umbridge into the forest and surrounded by centaurs. And despite their rage at this woman, their desire to see her dead, their disgust with her, they still manage to grin at each other when Skull's sarcastic side rears up in Harry.

"Tell them I mean them no harm Potter!" she screams.

"I'm sorry professor." Entirely insincere "But I must not tell lies."

O~O~O~

Skull grins to himself.

He can't do anything about the wards yet. But he _can_ deal with the Neo Eaters that step outside of them. The protection amulets work for magic, and the bodyguards can only stop him if they _see_ him.

Physical attacks can only be stopped if someone sees them coming.

Skull has lived over 30 years at the top of the mafia. His family consists of the best of the best of the mafia. He is a war veteran. A survivor of the front lines.

No one sees him coming.

He takes to throwing knifes and daggers into throats, hearts, and brains. Each handle has his cloud motif on them just so they know who is taking them out, and the moment anyone tries to touch the weapons they burst into purple flames and dissolve into nothing.

Once Skull's targets are dead, their wards fall, and Skull goes to the mansions and clears them out.

The only ones that will be left are the ones that are smart enough to stay in their mansions behind their wards. And Skull refused to let that stand for long. He'd get them all one way or another.

O~O~O~

It is after the incident with Umbridge that things go wrong.

Their Cloud is in the middle of his common room when the vision hits, and the Arcobaleno witness their Cloud jerk in place and collapse against the couch, before their surroundings jerk and shudder until they witness the vision of Sirius being held captive and tortured.

They witness Harry rush to confirm his godfather's state, and the scramble when he can't get ahold of him. They watch as Harry gears up to go to war, and how his friends, those he had trained to be soldiers, gear up beside him.

And for the first time, the Arcobaleno witness Harry take control of a situation, begin making calls and decisions, witness the first appearance of 'The General' in a wartime scenario.

O~O~O~

It's a trap.

The Arcobaleno watch the situation spiral out of control, as Harry takes in the facts around him and reacts. As he calls out orders and commands, as he flings spells and curses, as his Flames flare into being and mix with his magic and make him deadly.

They jerk and react to the situation around them automatically, moving to shield and react to the battle around them on instinct. They move as if they could stand back to back with Harry in battle before it dawns on them once again: they are in a memory. Everything they are seeing has already happened.

They cannot help.

O~O~O~

Sirius falls into the veil and Harry snaps.

The next few minutes see Harry spinning out of Remus' hold and raging across the Ministry. They witness as Harry flings curse after curse at the Death Eaters around him, as their bodies drop to the floor.

How the children Harry had trained respond to his actions, how they attack with the intent to make sure their enemies will not get back up.

The Arcobaleno realize they are seeing the first battle of the coming war and they still, taking in every detail of the battle around them.

When it's over and Harry returns to Hogwarts, he gathers the students that went with him, makes sure they are all alright, gets himself looked over at their insistence, and then retreats to the Room of Requirement.

It is there that the Arcobaleno hear the prophesy their Cloud had taken from the halls. The prophesy that has shaped their Clouds life.

" _The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches... born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies... and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not... and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives... the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies..."_

It is there that they witness their Cloud scream, witness him break things as he comes to terms with what had happened to him, and what he now knows. Where Harry destroys the orb so no one can get ahold of it again.

And when Harry marches out of the Room, his head is held high, his back is straight, and his eyes are narrowed.

They witness the Minister storming into Hogwarts and demanding Dumbledore hand over Harry for 'breaking and entering' and 'destruction of Ministry Property'. How the students Harry had taught move to defend him, how they move before Dumbledore or the teachers can do anything, and how they are quick to block the Minister's view as Harry is shuffled into the crowd. How some students start yelling about Harry Potter breaking into the Ministry being insane, and what could he possibly be thinking to cover up the true reasons for the students' mad shuffle and movements.

The Arcobaleno's eyes are warm with approval as they witness Hufflepuffs quickly hand over a change of robes, how Harry drapes the colors of Loyalty and Hard Work over himself and is shuffled out the doors without any of the teachers or the Minister being aware of what happened as all the actions and movement is covered up in the 'panic'.

It is the year that Harry is forced to go on the run from a Minister convinced he is the villain.


	17. Chapter 17

**GLORIOUS ALL OF YOU.**

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The Arcobaleno are tense as they watch their Cloud rush to gather the supplies he had already prepared- having long ago realized he would be driven to go on the run one way or another- from Gringotts. It takes him moments to get his trunk turned into an earring and tucked away into an expandable bag. (His ears are not pierced yet at this point). A Wizard's Tent is tucked into the bag next as well as food and water as well as a few other things.

The Arcobaleno watch how Harry uses the knowledge he had devoured over the last two years to ward the tent he lives in and help himself hide.

They witness the shadow tactics that Harry takes to using.

How he slides in and out of Hogwarts using the secret passageways he had found over the years. How he keeps in contact with his army, and hands out orders. They witness as those orders are obeyed, and how Harry gathers information. They witness his struggles and pain as he rushes around by himself, having left Hermione and Ron at Hogwarts in charge of his army.

They are beside their Cloud as he puts pieces together and brings his knowledge to the Slytherin Purebloods. They learn beside Harry about Horcruxes, and what it means when the Purebloods recognize what Harry has found and fill in the blanks.

They learn of the lengths Tom Riddle went to in his attempts to avoid death.

They follow their Cloud as he searches for the anchors Voldemort used. They are there when Harry remembers the diary he had destroyed in his second year, and they walk beside him when he sneaks back into the castle to get it.

Dumbledore finds him.

Instead of stopping Harry, the man gives him the diary, and explains the pieces he had already found, what he had put together. He explains about Tom, and what lengths the man had gone to. That he is certain there are at least seven Horcruxes that need to be found.

Harry sees the ring Dumbledore wears, sees the curse it has laid on the Headmaster and knows he is dying. Harry takes the ring, making sure never to touch it skin on skin. Then he treks down to the Chamber and the Arcobaleno feel their hearts stall in their chests when they see the colossal skeleton of the Basilisk their Cloud had faced at 12.

Harry walks forward and doesn't hesitate to reach into the Basilisk's mouth and rip fangs out. He bundles the fangs up in a cloth and stores them away in his bottomless bag. He steps back from the skeleton and they see his hand go to the scar on his shoulder that looks like a chemical burn and rub as he remembers the burn of poison killing him from within.

The next few moments see Harry taking the fang he had kept out of his bag and the bundle and sinking it into the ring. They all flinch along with Harry when a black-smoke-wraith rises above it and an inhuman screech echoes from the ring before the wraith fades alongside the screaming.

Harry brings the fang to the Goblins and gets them to forge it into a 'dagger' without actually changing its shape. Instead the dagger, when sheathed, appears to be a necklace of an onyx fang. (The Fang wasn't really a dagger in the conventional sense. Harry had just had the Goblins enchant onyx stone to hold the fang without dissolving and made it so that when he grabbed the tip of the fang and tugged, it would come out of the 'sheath' of onyx) The smaller fangs are similarly made into knifes and daggers and stashed all over their Cloud's body and in the bottomless bag. (Some of the much smaller teeth joined the large fang on the necklace, framing either side.)

It is enchanted so only Harry can pull the weapon from its sheath, so that anyone looking at it will only see a useless necklace and so that no one can remove it from his neck at all.

No one realizes Harry wears the fangs of a 1000-year-old Basilisk around his throat, that his daggers and knifes are more of the same.

As horrified as the Arcobaleno are that their Cloud had to face the Basilisk at 12, they also find that they are intensely proud of his accomplishment.

O~O~O~

The Arcobaleno trek beside their Cloud as he slides into the shadows and learns to be an assassin. They watch as Harry continues to slide in and out of Hogwarts, working with the students he had taught. They watch as he brings the Purebloods together and devises a way to track the other Horcrux using the ones he already had.

They watch as Ron and Hermione join him on the run, as the Ministry makes Harry their 'Undesirable Number One' and it gets dangerous for Hermione and Ron to stay easily accessible by the Ministry at Hogwarts

They walk beside the trio as they move constantly from place to place, following the Horcrux Compass, and the war worsens.

They receive the notice from the students- the soldiers- left in Hogwarts that the Ministry had fallen to Voldemort.

They watch as the trio slowly find each of the Horcrux and manage to destroy them. They watch as some of the scars are carved onto their Cloud's body for the first time when he gets caught in the traps protecting the Horcruxes. They are witness to the hit and run tactics Harry takes to using when he runs into Death Eaters or Snatchers, and how he earns a few scars that way.

They witness the trio going into Gringotts. And they witness Harry taking control of the situation and explaining to the King what they were tracking, what they had found inside the Bank. They watch as Harry plans with the goblins. As he stages a 'break in' to get Hufflepuff's Cup.

It is against the treaties that bind the goblins for them to help in any wizarding war. They are meant to be a neutral party since they hold the gold of the wizards. Harry thinks his way around the problem.

He tells the Goblins that he will pay for the damages he causes, and nothing else.

The Goblins can't break their word and 'help' Harry if they don't know when Harry will strike or how after all.

And so they watch as the trio breaks into the bank, impersonates Death Eaters, takes the Cup, and rides out of the ceiling on the back of a security dragon.

(It's like watching one of Skull's insane stunt shows where the next stunt just keeps getting more and more insane and dangerous than the last.)

O~O~O~

Time passes and moves into what would have been Harry's six year. The shadow tactics get worse, and Harry is constantly on the move or sneaking into Hogwarts.

The only reason he manages it is a little House Elf named Dobby, who is perfectly willing to transport Harry back and forth.

The Arcobaleno are horrified as they watch the war worsen.

When the trio figures out the next Horcrux they're looking for is being worn around Umbridge's neck they sneer at the sight of the woman. When Harry rants to his friends about how 'he had already known she was a disgusting person, but this is a kind of low he didn't know existed' they wonder what he means.

Until Ron asks the same question and Harry points out a few facts. They had all carried some of the Horcruxes at one point or another. They all knew how the Horcruxes had drained them, how being in close proximity to a Horcrux upped jealousy and anger, how it tore at their minds and bonds.

Umbridge was wearing one as a piece of jewelry and was utterly content and happy. Was capable of casting a Patronus.

And what kind of despicable being did she have to be naturally for a Horcrux to _not even phase her?_

Either way, they get ahold of the locket and Harry is all too happy to destroy it and add it to the collection of destroyed Horcruxes he is keeping.

O~O~O~

Voldemort finds out the trio is hunting Horcruxes, and he panics. He's furious, and out for blood. The attacks he launches show that, as Voldemort gets more vicious and targeted. He starts hunting for people to lure Harry out with.

It's how Luna Lovegood finds herself taken by Death Eaters; and it's also how Harry ends up captured when he goes to help her.

The Arcobaleno are very, very tense when it happens.

Luna takes one look at the three of them and her smile saddens and grows a little pained. "You should not have come Commander."

"You're mine Luna" Harry tells her, his green eyes gleaming "I wasn't going to leave you in their hands."

"I know Commander." Luna agrees "Clouds always cover what they consider to be their own, but this is going to hurt you."

Harry won't understand the many Cloud references Luna made when talking about him for years, but he grins at her anyway "I've already been hurt Luna. Getting hurt for My Own is nothing."

O~O~O~

When the torture starts, the Arcobaleno _**rage**_.

O~O~O~

They listen as first Hermione is taken.

They listen as Ron and Harry both Rage in the cell, the Cloud and the Storm feeding each other's fury. They are witness to the bleeding form of Hermione being thrown into the cell, how Ron storms forward and Harry falls back to check on the limp form of his heart sister even as Luna steps forward to help her.

They can do nothing as Ron is then taken out of the cell and Harry is left to rage even as he pulls the shirt off his back in an attempt to bandage the bleeding wounds on Hermione and pulls her into the back of the cell with Luna.

The next ten minutes, Ron's screams echo down to Harry before suddenly cutting off.

They see Harry go utterly still, crouched in front of Hermione and Luna at the sudden silence.

And when Ron is brought back to the cell, they can see the relief that Ron is still breathing mixed with the rage at the injures in their Cloud.

And then Harry is taken.

The Arcobaleno are not prepared for the intimate look in on how Harry's body was carved up. They are not prepared for the fact that Harry is tortured not for information, but simply because he is Harry Potter. They are not prepared to watch as different spells are hurled at their Cloud, each more painful than the last.

And, above all, they are not prepared for Harry to remain utterly silent in the face of it, only his eyes conveying his utter and compete fury.

(The memories need to paused constantly as they watch this part, each of the Arcobaleno needing to rage more than once, and Yuni breaking down a few times until Reborn covers her ears and turns her eyes into his chest so she will not need to watch anymore.

Not one of the others take their eyes off the memories when they play though. Not one of them looks away.

They will remember this the next time they go to call Skull weak. Will remember this before they move to strike him. They will remember the unbending spine and the glowing eyes in the face of torture.)

O~O~O~

Harry is thrown back into the cell like trash.

And the Arcobaleno watch as the four friends, as the small family, tends to each other's wounds.

They engrave these memories into their minds, so that they will never forget the faces, the bonds, and the strength that brought their Cloud to their side.

The Arcobaleno breathe a sigh of relief when Dobby manages to get their Cloud, Luna, Ron, and Hermione out of the cell.

And they mourn for Harry when Dobby loses his life in the process, watching in silence as Harry digs a grave out by hand for the elf overlooking the ocean.

(They try not to think about the graves that had already been made for the dead, or how many more they will see dug out by their Cloud before the end.)

O~O~O~

A week passes with Harry trying to heal and lead at the same time as he tries to take care of Hermione and Ron. The two of them are healed well enough though they are left with scars.

Luna helps clean out and heal Harry's wounds as much as she can. She apologizes that she is not a healer who would be able to do a better job.

"It's fine Luna." Harry answers, his voice tired and worn "I can't go to a hospital anyway, and you've managed to seal the wounds. I can deal with scars."

"Your Rainbow will not be happy when this comes to light."

The Arcobaleno jerk in place, blinking as it seems the woman- Luna- is looking right at them when she says this, missing the confused look Harry shoots at her back.

Before Harry can ask anything else a large bear Patronus comes barreling into the tent, and Neville Longbottom's voice comes from it.

Harry is being called back to the school.

He wakes Ron and Hermione and they go.

They find a resistance.

They find Death Eaters are in the school, taking over and issuing threats. Severus Snape is standing as headmaster.

Dumbledore dead at Snape's hand. (Though Harry had known the curse from the ring would have killed him anyway.)

Harry being discovered by Draco Malfoy and being forced into a duel to keep up appearances when others find the two of them. Disarming Draco and fleeing through the castle.

Finding the Diadem inside the Room of Requirement when the Horcrux Compass goes off. Harry lunging to tackle Hermione to the floor when she was snagged in the trap that made people want to put the diadem on. Destroying it and the now expected black-smoke-wraith and the inhuman screech.

O~O~O~

The Arcobaleno feel wrung out as they watch Harry go back to the resistance and gather information.

They feel worse when Harry comes to the conclusion that 'we have to move now or we won't get another chance.'

They watch children cheer when Harry makes the plan, and leaves Ron and Hermione with his soldiers even as he slips out to gain more information. They witness the way their Cloud stops when he is alone, how he leans against the wall, closes his eyes, and sags under the weight of command. How he struggles with himself before he straightens, because he has no choice, he must be the leader, there is no one else.

He goes back to the resistance afterwards and nods. "It's time. Come."

And he leads them back to the Great Hall where Snape has gathered the students so the Death Eaters can 'look' for Harry. Their Cloud straightens before he strides inside and commands the attention of all in the Hall.

O~O~O~

War.

The Arcobaleno watch the next memories, and they feel their hearts grow heavy with pain. It is war. True war. A battle and bleeding and pain. Desperate nights, and long days, no rest and praying that they live to see the next sunrise, that their loved ones live to see the same. It is soldiering on despite half-healed wounds because the supplies are running out and will be needed for more serious injuries- just as the Medics must be careful using their magic to heal when they are so tired already and have no idea when the next wave will attack and they will be needed to save lives. (They see that some of Skull's scars come from refusing more than the bare minimum of treatment _just in case_.)

And during this war, Harry stands at the front, leading those he had prepared, those he had taught, and those who stood with him. They watch as the castle comes to life, as armor and statutes pull themselves free of the walls and their stands. How portraits become messengers, and how the House Ghosts rally to Harry. They watch the House Elves pour out of the kitchens armed with knives.

They watch as Harry becomes 'The General' full time. As the body count begins to add up on both sides. How the battles are unending, the Death Eaters are merciless, and the war worsens as time passes.

They mourn for the children that are forced to fight and die. For their Cloud who was forced to lead.

Hogwarts becomes a sanctuary as Voldemort's attacks spread out from the school. Children, teenagers, babies, and adults pour into the castle as the only 'safe place' they can think of. Muggleborns have their parents moved out of the country or into Hogwarts to protect them.

O~O~O~

The war goes on for weeks, and always Harry is at the head of it all.

Organizing supply runs, sending out feelers, and spies. Helping to entertain the little ones, giving out what hope he can to those who reside in the castle, because he knows he is the face of the light, and he is their savior, their hope given form. Going out on rescue missions. Leaving the grounds of the castle and finding clearings so he can invoke the Taboo and summon Snatchers and Death Eaters alike so he can fight them.

It wears on the Cloud.

It wears on the Arcobaleno to watch it all and be unable to help.

O~O~O~

And then the day comes that the castle is attacked from within. It's early morning, two in the morning, when Harry snaps awake as the castle warns him.

He has never been so glad for the sentience of Hogwarts as he rolls out of his hammock (the beds and dorms had been given to the children and babies as more and more poured in) and drops to the floor.

Harry sends the Ghosts rushing to wake up the rest of the fighters and get the parents and little ones retreating to the safe rooms even as he rushes to meet the threat.

The Arcobaleno watch as Harry meets the attacking force alone. How it doesn't matter that Harry is alone, not one of the attacking force makes it past Harry to get to the retreating children.

(They remember Skull standing in the clearing in front of the mansion, in that Not-Future, the situation that so mirrors this moment when Skull refused to let one Millefiore step past him to make it to the young Sky he guarded and the Arcobaleno that escaped with her)

They are so painfully proud.

O~O~O~

That battle goes into the early morning hours. It only stops when Harry sends the Bloody Barron to see where the Death Eaters are coming from and discovers the Vanishing Cabinet.

He leaves Blaise Zabini and Hermione in charge of his forces, and he is the one to get to the Room of Requirement and burn the cabinet into nothing.

When the Death Eaters are gone, dead or driven out of the castle, Harry retreats from the group.

It is how he discovers Severus Snape meeting with Voldemort, and witnesses Voldemort ordering Snape's death.

The Arcobaleno watch as Harry approaches the dying man, and how he is offered memories in Snape's last moments.

O~O~O~

The Arcobaleno witness Harry throwing orders out to his forces before he retreats to the Headmaster's office and to the Pensieve he knows Dumbledore had kept inside.

The Arcobaleno watch the memory of Harry watching a memory. They learn of the manipulations, how everything is laid out in front of Harry through the memories given to him by Snape.

They learn of the last horrible truth: Harry is a living Horcrux.

The last besides Voldemort's snake.

How Harry had been raised only to die a martyr.

Harry comes out of that memory and he is utterly still. It takes a moment or two before Harry throws his head back and laughs. It's not a nice laugh. It is broken and disbelieving, it is grief and shattered hopes.

"You utter bastard" he breathes into the silence of the office as pieces snap into place and the picture comes into view for both him and for the watching Arcobaleno who are furious on his behalf. "You knew. You knew from the beginning, and you lead me to this moment. Raised me for this exact moment." A pause before Harry continues.

"And now I have nothing. I have nothing but Voldemort's death. For those I call my own, for the children huddled in the castle hoping for safety and praying for a miracle I cannot allow him to live…and in order to do that…" Harry trails off and the Arcobaleno can't breathe as they fill in the blank.

' _In order to do that, I must die.'_

It is utterly silent in the office as Harry stares at the Pensieve in front of him.

The Arcobaleno gather around him, knowing that he doesn't know they are there, that they are only seeing a memory, but still gathering to his side anyway as if they could offer him support.

They feel sick, and hopeless because this has already passed. There is nothing they can do for their Cloud, except watch and remember. They can do nothing but witness and swear to themselves that Skull will never go through this again. That they will never underestimate the man again. That they will never allow him to walk into war alone.

That he will never need to sacrifice himself again.

Harry straightens up and takes a breath.

He turns and glides down the stairs, back to his army, back to his friends.

O~O~O~

Voldemort takes offence to children driving his forces out of the castle. He mounts another attack a few hours after the last. He brings his forces against Hogwarts' wards.

Harry sees the wards flare to life and he whirls away from them. He commands the upper years and a few of the adults to hold the line, to watch the wards, to destroy the bridge leading to the castle.

He gathers the little ones, the children that had come to Hogwarts for sanctuary all the way up to the third years. He takes them, and the parents down to the Chamber of Secrets. He has the parents make the place more comfortable and lit up, before he walks around the gathered children who are so, so frightened.

And he smiles.

It's worn and tired, it's late nights and endless fighting. It's last ditch efforts and a promise.

A vow.

"I know you're scared." He tells the children and they fall silent as he speaks, their eyes focused on his face. "I know you hear the fighting and you worry about bad guys getting to you. I know you worry about your parents, about siblings, about friends."

"I know you worry." Harry continues and his voice seems to reverberate through the Chamber "I can't promise that everything will be alright. That your friends, your siblings, your parents that are fighting right now will be alright. I won't lie to you about that…but I can make you a promise."

Harry's eyes gleam bright violet with his resolve as he next speaks, and not one of the children or the parents in the Chamber make a sound "I can swear to all of you, that no matter what happens today, no matter who gets hurt, or who passes away…" the castle rumbles above their heads but the children don't look away from Harry as he speaks "Voldemort _will_ die today. He will never hurt anyone ever again. When you come out of here…when everything is over…I can swear to you that Voldemort will be nothing but a memory."

He pulls his eyes away from the children staring at him like he is hope given form and turns to the parents "Keep them safe."

It is a command.

And the parents nod, a solemn "Yes sir" echoing in the Chamber.

Harry whirls away and the Chamber seals behind him.

O~O~O~

Harry pauses once the Chamber seals and leans against the door for a moment. For a moment, when no one is there to see it, Harry allows himself to falter, to be weak, to be _tired_. He allows his eyes to close, allows himself to mourn for what he knows is coming.

And then he straightens, shaking off his weariness and pain as he stalks away, the moment of weakness fading, all hints of doubt stripped away leaving only The General behind as he heads for the battle.

The Arcobaleno are on his heels, following him up out of the Chamber. They follow beside Harry as he joins the battle.

The wards around the castle fall, Death Eaters pour forward and Dark Creatures rush in alongside them. The battle rages on.

Bodies stack up and time passes. The battle seems endless and blood is spilled until two hours later Voldemort's voice echoes over the castle.

"You have fought valiantly, but in vain. I do not wish this. Every drop of magical blood spilled is a terrible waste. I therefore command my forces to retreat. In their absence, dispose of your dead with dignity."

A pause and then he speaks again "Harry Potter, I now speak directly to you. On this night, you have allowed your friends to die for you, rather than face me yourself. There is no greater dishonor. Join me in the Forbidden Forest, and confront your fate. If you do not do this, I shall kill every last man, woman and child who tries to conceal you from me."

And so it is that Harry Potter walks to into the Forbidden Forest alone, to meet Voldemort.

O~O~O~

The Arcobaleno watch as Harry pulls out the Resurrection Stone and twirls it in his hands. (He'd been called to the Goblins for Dumbledore's Will Reading somewhere in the middle of his trek and he had put the pieces together with Hermione's help. It figured that he'd end up with all three Hollows.)

In the next instant Sirius Black, Lily and James Potter, and Remus Lupin are standing around him.

"…You are all here." Harry breathes, not really having expected it to work, and Lily smiles warm and soft.

"We never left"

A pause before "Does it hurt when you die?"

The Arcobaleno flinch back, away from the question their Cloud has asked. None of them want to think about what that question means, that Harry who has suffered torture and pain would ask this question.

Sirius shakes his head answering the question "It's like going to sleep."

James smiles warm and loving "It's almost over Harry."

Harry goes still and his eyes are haunted as he speaks next. "I'm sorry. I never wanted any of you to die for me. And Remus…you'll never get to see your son grow."

Remus shakes his head, a sad and warm smile on his lips "Others will tell him what Tonks and I died for. That we fought so that he could live. He will understand one day."

And Harry stills, looking out towards Voldemort for a moment before focusing of them again. "You'll stay with me?"

"Until the end" his father agrees.

"He won't be able to see you?"

Sirius shakes his head "No. We're here you see." He taps Harry's heart.

It's silent for a moment or two and then Harry speaks, his voice almost a whisper and a plea. "Stay close to me…?"

"Always." His mother swears and Harry closes his eyes.

The Arcobaleno take a moment to close their own. It's… _painful_ to watch this. Agonizing to listen to this moment, to realize that their Cloud is not even an adult when he makes the choice to walk into the forest for the children in the castle. When he chooses to die for others.

When Harry drops the stone and steps forward, their eyes open and focus.

They will not dishonor their Cloud by looking away from this.

Harry walks forward and goes to meet Voldemort. He lifts the invisibility cloak from his shoulders before he comes into sight, putting the cloak away in his bottomless pouch and stepping from the shadows.

"Harry Potter" Voldemort breathes his name upon seeing him "…the boy-who-lived...come to die!"

In the next moment the Arcobaleno witness their Cloud standing straight and proud, his eyes fiery in their defiance as the Killing Curse flies towards his chest.

It hits.

And Harry falls.

O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~

 **It doesn't fit into the story itself, but the Horcrux Compass when it was tested by the Purebloods and Harry…Harry held the Diary and the Compass always pointed at him when they tested to see if it would track the Diary. No one even thought that** _ **Harry**_ **was what the Compass tracked through the tests so no one realizes Harry is a living Horcrux until Dumbledore's memories tell Harry himself.**

 **Those of you who are curious: I have some of my one shots being adopted!**

 **Dead Beat was adopted by Lucy's Dreamland (which has a chapter posted)  
Roadrunner was adopted by TheSocialBookworm (which ALSO has the first chapter posted)**


	18. Chapter 18

**I teared up at all the reviews for last chapter. So many of you said I tugged at your heartstrings and brought tears to your eyes and here I am with tears in my own thanks to your reactions and reviews.  
You have no idea what that means to me- that the response to Slip Up is so powerful. I just—**

 **GAH.**

O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~

The Arcobaleno thought they were ready.

They knew their Cloud had gone into that forest to die. They knew he had walked into Voldemort's sight line with no intention of defending himself.

It was purely a move of sacrifice. Of a martyr.

They _knew_ that.

It doesn't stop the instant reaction to watching their Cloud _**die**_ watching as his body falls to the ground in front of Voldemort, his Death Eaters, and Hagrid (who had been captured during the battle and is utterly horrified to see Harry walk out of the forest) like a puppet with its strings cut.

It doesn't stop the near synchronized flashback to Skull standing in that clearing in the Not-Future, the last line of defense between Yuni, the others, and Byakuran's minions. It doesn't stop the knowledge that this is the _second time_ they have seen their Cloud die for others, die without hesitation. (The sight of it will leave scars upon them, and will leave them with a burning resolve that there will be _**no**_ 'third time'.)

It doesn't stop any of that.

The Flame Storm that rises up from the Arcobaleno, their Flames flaring out of their control and mixing together in the utter harmony of their rage and denial, is so powerful the Arcobaleno find themselves flung from the Pensieve itself.

They come back to their bodies as if they had been thrown, each taking a step away from the Pensieve as if they had been shoved, their Flames still flaring and mixing into a Flame Storm of dangerous size.

They rage around the room destroying everything they can break in their quest to calm themselves.

It doesn't make anything better.

O~O~O~

Yuni had seen some of these memories come to pass already. She had known her Cloud had died willingly before he met her.

That doesn't prepare her for watching it all play out.

No amount of forewarning was enough to prepare her for watching the war and sacrifice that haunted her Cloud play out like this.

She is crying, but she does nothing to stop herself. She will cry for Skull who had run out of tears, for the Arcobaleno who will not allow themselves to cry.

And she knows even now that it is not over. They have still not witnessed the last of the battle, the aftermath that shaped their Cloud, the events that led him to their side.

O~O~O~

Colonnello's hands are bleeding.

He knows they are but he can't find it in himself to care at the moment, because he _needs_ to punch things, needs them to break under his hands and if that means his hands bleed, Colonnello will punch things until his hands are stained red.

He is disgusted with himself. Years he had called his Cloud weak, called him 'Lackey' ordered him around to his whims and hit him when Skull failed to obey fast enough or well enough.

He'd hit and ordered a survivor, a veteran, a prisoner of war, around. An abuse victim that had been raised to be a sacrifice.

And when Skull- Harry- had put all those facts together, had realized what he was meant to be, he was strong enough to look past his anger. He was strong enough to blame the right people, and to _still_ walk into the forest and sacrifice himself for the children he had promised would leave the Chamber and find Voldemort was only a memory.

Colonnello is seconds from throwing up.

So he hits things, because if he doesn't, Colonnello knows he will have time to think, time to wish harm on himself. That he will shatter apart.

He slams his eyes shut and chokes back the urge to scream. After a moment and an eternity Colonnello opens his eyes, steels himself, and turns to face the Pensieve sitting untouched in the center of the destruction.

He will not dishonor his Cloud by not finishing these memories. He owes it to Skull to see the full scope of his mistakes, and he owes it to himself to see these events play out so he can begin to make amends.

O~O~O~

Lal is still.

She's angry, she's horrified, she wants to break things, but she can't move.

Skull had walked willingly to his death for children. He was a soldier who had been built up to be a martyr. A symbol who had grown into himself, who had gone out of his way to learn, to grow, to love. A symbol that had become _more_.

Her Cloud.

And she had just watched him die.

(Again. She had watched him die _again_ , and in the same way. Standing as a wall between the enemy and those he had chosen to protect.)

He was one of the strongest people she had ever seen…and she had missed it for years.

She was part of an information gathering Famiglia…and she had missed it _all_.

Lal is still because she can't bring herself to move. Her world view has shattered and the broken pieces have rearranged into a whole new picture.

Her eyes close and she takes a deep breath, automatically straightening up into an 'at attention' position. She's not finished yet. There is more yet to see.

Lal turns to the Pensieve and takes a step forward as if she is marching off to battle.

O~O~O~

Verde's hands are clenched tight enough that his knuckles are bone white and he can feel blood welling up from the crescents in his palms.

He has never failed like this before.

He is a scientist. The Best. They called him the new Da Vinci. He prides himself on the information he gathers, on his observational skills. On his ability to gather information and variables no matter the situation and _see_ the results.

And yet…

Verde had not only failed to gather information, but he had failed to _see_.

But he is seeing now. Oh, he is seeing now and he had been _blind_.

His mind is flashing over every situation Skull has ever been in, every reaction or lack of reaction he has had, every conversation, every series of events.

He has the proper knowledge now, the proper observations, and some of the variables. The picture that makes up 'Skull' rearranges in his head, pieces slipping into places they hadn't fit in before, other pieces breaking, disappearing, or changing shape entirely.

He had missed so much.

And Skull had been so much more than he had given the Cloud credit for.

The blinders had been forcibly removed however, and Verde swears to learn from this mistake.

He turns to the Pensieve, his eyes flashing.

It holds the answers.

And Verde refuses to fail again.

O~O~O~

Viper had known what happened in Britain.

She'd followed the events religiously, found all the hidden radio stations, listened with her heart in her mouth every night as she wondered if _this_ would be the night that Voldemort killed Harry Potter and his reign of terror spread beyond England's borders.

She'd had her own informants feeding her information.

She'd _known_ it was bad. She'd even had some knowledge of what happened during Harry Potter's school years. She'd thought she was prepared for what sat in the Pensieve. Thought to herself that the other Arcobaleno would have their world view shattered, but that hers would remain mostly the same shape even if the colors changed or some pieces rearranged.

She had been _wrong_.

She had known what happened during Harry's school years, had followed the war from afar…but she hadn't _understood_ what she had heard

She thought she had. She had thought she knew what was coming.

She had been arrogant.

Arrogant to believe that just because she had kept up with news of the War and kept up with that happened with Harry she was prepared for what lay in the Pensieve. Prepared to see firsthand the events of the war from the front lines. Prepared to combine Harry Potter and Skull De Mort into one person, to see what her Cloud had been through.

And so it is that Viper realizes that her world view has shattered alongside the others.

But she is an Information Broker. She gathers information not only because she likes to know what is happening, and because she likes the money that comes alongside it, but because she needs to know what is coming after her Elements to properly shield them in Mist.

So it's simple. She needs to finish the memories in the Pensieve and follow after her Cloud.

O~O~O~

Fon liked to think he was a calm person.

He hadn't always been one of course. He was a Hibari _as well as_ the World's Strongest Storm. He had been one of the biggest hellions on the face of the planet in his youth. It had taken him _years_ of grueling work to find the 'eye' in his temper, the eye of his Storm.

Very little was capable of rocking that calm, of stirring his Storm into action.

Threats against those Fon considers _his_ were at the top of that list.

(It was why the Triads had never tried more than _once_ to control him through I-pin. Fon had wiped out an entire cornerstone of the Triad structure when they had tried it, and made it perfectly clear he would do it again if the situation found itself repeating.)

Watching one of his own grow up in an abusive home was bad enough. Finding out that Skull had fought in a war was worse. Discovering that he had been targeted from all sides, that _children_ had had to step up against an adult threat, that Skull had led the effort, that he was a General, a Boss, a _leader_ …

That Skull was all of these things, that he had suffered so much, that he had chosen to _**die**_ for people who did not deserve him, for children that no one else would stand up for…

Fon is very much **not** calm.

The room suffers many losses when Fon can't quite manage to stifle the Flames of his soul and finds quite a bit of the furniture gets disintegrated when he gets tossed out of the Pensieve.

(It is the Storm the Clouds stir in times of trouble, the Storm that hides the Clouds from view when it is necessary and Fon is in a fighting mood.

Someone needs to die for this.)

O~O~O~

Reborn lashes out the moment his feet meet solid ground.

Furniture falls apart in the face of his wrath, but it is not enough.

Eventually Reborn stops destroying things with his Flames and guns. Eventually he stills beside the Pensieve that had shown him those damming memories.

He has never missed so much in his life.

As the World's Best Hitman _missing_ something meant you died. Reborn had hadn't kept his title by being unobservant.

And yet he had not only misjudged his Cloud, but messed up so utterly he had seen the complete opposite of what his Cloud was.

Reborn is ashamed.

(He doesn't like the feeling.)

His world view had been cracking from very near the start of these memories Skull had left for them. Pieces had fallen away and shifted places…but seeing Skull so very young and still stepping forward on behalf of those who came to him for protection…

Watching as Skull stepped forward with his back straight and his eyes unyielding, not an ounce of doubt or fear showing in his eyes as he chooses to die for the children he had taught, for those he had hidden away beneath the school…

Reborn had the upmost respect for that sort of sacrifice, for the sacrifice Lily Potter had made for Harry in the face of Voldemort, the sacrifice her son was now making on behalf of those in the school.

And so this is the moment his world view completely shatters apart, because the man he had called Lackey, had called weak, had kicked around…was one of the strongest people Reborn had ever met and Reborn is ashamed he had missed it, that he had looked down on a man who had sacrificed so much of himself over and over again with no expectations of anything being given back.

Reborn is a Sun. He is the one to heal those he calls his own. It's a part of his very being to shield his family with his body, to heal them when they are hurt. His eyes have been opened where he was blind.

Skull was very, very hurt for all his strength. He had spent so long with only himself to count on that he expected nothing from the Arcobaleno now. Reborn- and the other Arcobaleno- refused to let that continue.

It was his job to heal Skull.

And in order to do that- his eyes turned to the Pensieve- he needed to know exactly what injuries his Cloud had been dealt.

O~O~O~

It is the job of a family to look after their own.

A choice, a privilege, something that is done willingly and to the best of the members' ability no matter the blood relations or lack of them.

When the world turned against them, a family stood together. When one member walked forward into Hell, their family was supposed to march beside them. When there was nothing, no hope, no joy…there was always family.

Skull had left his past in the hands of his family so they could understand the war he was marching into.

He had forgotten their views on family. Had forgotten that that loyalty and strength went two ways. That he was not the only one that would stare gods in the eye and tell them to 'back the fuck off' for the members of his family.

Skull marched to war, he marched into Hell alone to face his past and the pain of all that he had lost, and all that he could lose if he failed.

He marched and so his family would follow.

He would not remain alone for long.

O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~

 **The winner of my cover contest is tsukasa913! Congratulations. All the pieces were beautiful and it was quite the challenge to pick a winner, but here it is.**


	19. Chapter 19

**Alright first things first: Replies to a couple of Guests.**

 **KK: Thank you for the suggestions, I appreciate them.**

 **Guest: the one who asked to make an Audio Recording. So long as I am credited and am provided a link to listen (because I am curious and would love to see the work you put in) I have no issues with it.**

 **Secondly: the 1000-Review special is going to be Protective!Arcobaleno in a Battle Situation. I'll let y'all know when it's up.**

O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~

The Arcobaleno's view of Skull has shattered.

He is not weak. He is not a Lackey. He is not useless.

He is a survivor, a General, a tactician.

He is _theirs_.

And he has faced war. They have just seen him die ( _ **again**_ ). Glances are exchanged and in the seconds it takes them to meet one another's eyes they all agree.

They will finish these memories, and then they will go after their Cloud who had left them alone to learn.

O~O~O

The memories start again as the Arcobaleno touch the Pensieve. They watch once more as their Cloud steps forward with his back straight, his eyes defying and resolute.

They watch as their Cloud is hit by the Killing Curse and how he falls to the floor. Their rage surges again, but this time they control their Flames well enough to prevent them from being flung out of the Pensieve a second time.

The memory continues.

The surroundings flash into blinding, unending white.

They witness their Cloud appears, crouched in the middle of it all, the only spot of color.

Harry rises up and glances around and the Arcobaleno recognize the bleached form of King's Cross Station. "What…?" their Cloud's voice breaks the silence and he walks forward.

The Arcobaleno follow.

"Oh Harry." A voice breaks the silence, and the entire group whirls around to face the origin. Their breath catches in time with Harry's.

Lily Potter is beautiful.

She is clad in a dress the shade of liquid gold with emerald touches around hems and seams looking like leaves that curl around the gold. It flutters and flares around her hips and legs on an invisible breeze. On top of the shining emerald eyes and fire colored hair she looks very much like a celestial being.

"Mum?" Harry's voice is choked and awed and he is still, clad in battle damaged clothes, clothes that bear the marks of his long hours on the run, the battle he has just faced, the dirt from where he had fallen and the blood of the dead.

The Arcobaleno can't help but think it looks very much like an angel had come down to welcome a weary traveler to rest.

"My brave, wonderful, selfless boy. I am so proud of you."

And the Arcobaleno are surrounding Harry in this memory, so they are close enough to hear as his voice catches on an almost sob at the sentence. They instinctively part as Lily Potter steps forward, reaching for her son. "You've been so brave," she tells him with warm eyes "so, so brave. You've grown into a _good_ man. A man who walked to his death for children. To give them a chance, and I have no words to tell you how proud we are of you."

"We?"

Lily smiles at Harry "Your family has always watched over you Harry," her voice is gentle as she answers him "we may not be able to be there physically, but you have never been nor will you ever be alone. Even if you can't see us."

In the next instant Lily's grin grows wicked and mischievous. The Arcobaleno blink when they realize they are seeing Skull's (Harry's) mischievous smirk on Lily's face "I just happened to be the one who won the fight that broke out deciding who would greet you here."

And Harry laughs even while he cries, because he has never had family that wanted him, that would fight over who got to see him. Remus had told him more than once he had inherited Lily's temper, and imagining his mother rolling around on the ground in a large free-for-all between his family members, only for it all to end with Lily sitting victorious on a pile of defeated bodies that share his hair or nose, or knees, or cheekbones, all grumbling about red heads and tempers is something Harry can see. The smirk softens back into a smile as Lily pulls Harry back into her arms and pulls him close. "I'm sorry you faced so much on your own, that you had to make so many hard choices." Her hands glide through thick black hair "I wish you hadn't needed to make these choices and suffer so much even though I'm proud."

Lily sighed for a moment before she pulled away "Unfortunately I have some things to show you, and you have a choice to make. One more difficult choice."

Harry pulls away from Lily's shoulder and takes a breath, wiping his eyes "What choice?"

Lily pulls him to a bench and murmurs "Look underneath it"

Harry obeys, only to jerk backwards and recoil away "What is that?!"

The Arcobaleno are silent as they creep a little closer so they can look at whatever had caused their Cloud to pull away. They mimic his reaction shortly after, sneers of disgust pulling at their faces as soon as they seen the curled up representation of Tom Riddle's soul.

"The night Voldemort killed us and tried to kill you his already shattered soul fragmented further. You were made a living vessel for that fragment. When he raised his wand to kill you and you willing went to sacrifice yourself it allowed you a choice. That thing is the fragment killed by his own hand. Right now we stand in a sort of…limbo. Or rather an area called the In-Between. Your sacrifice and Tom Riddle's soul fragment allow for an odd set of circumstances for you."

Harry stared at her as his mother- _his mother-_ paused "I want you to know right now that as of this moment the Prophesy is complete. You've done your part in it. You _**do not**_ need to go if you don't want to. Alright?"

Harry nodded. He thought he may be in shock. He was processing everything he was told but…

Lily nodded "Alright. You have a choice here. Everyone does, but not many have the awareness to know they have one- not when it usually feels so natural to move forward- move on. You can go back." She told him "You could go back. Wake up. Live out the rest of your life the way you want. I will still be here when you join me a second time. We will all still be here. All this choice will do is postpone our meeting. This I swear to you."

"Or?" Harry asked, the innate urge to know all his options insisting he ask.

"Or" his mother continued "You could come with me now. You could move on. You don't _need_ to go back. You've done your part. Everything you needed to do you have done and you've done it beautifully. You could _rest_. Meet the rest of your family. I told you- we've watched over you your entire life and if you go back we will continue to watch over you and simply greet you later."

She paused a moment, allowing Harry to absorb what she had offered him "These are your choices. I will be proud and happy no matter your choice. So…do you want to come with me now, or go back and meet up with me later?"

The Arcobaleno see Harry's face twist as the choice is offered to him. They know it is probably the most difficult choice he has ever made, or possibly will ever make.

The entire encounter is watched and memorized by the Arcobaleno with an air of sacred silence. This was their Cloud's mother. The mother that had sacrificed herself for him without a moment of hesitation. They memorize her voice, the way she carried herself, her face, her eyes, how she talked…

This woman deserved to be remembered and honored.

So the Arcobaleno would do so.

Harry spoke softly as he broke the silence to answer his mother "I'll go back." He wasn't the sort to leave business unfinished, not even when rest sounded glorious. He could postpone their meeting. It wasn't a goodbye. It was a 'see you later.'

His mother smiled at him, warm and loving and proud before she pressed her lips to his scar and whispered to him.

"I will see you again Harry. Live…and be happy."

O~O~O~

The Arcobaleno find themselves back in the middle of the forest only seconds after their Cloud had hit the ground.

They watch as he is declared 'dead' and how Hagrid is made to take the 'body' back to the Castle.

Their eyes burn with rage as Voldemort steps up the Castle and gloats about killing their Cloud. As screams of horror and denial echo from the throats of children and adults alike. And they are silent as Voldemort issues his threat "Join me…or die."

And Neville Longbottom steps forward, his eyes burning with resolve. For an instant they can almost see the bright yellow of Sun Flames in his eyes. He is a Sun with one of his own 'dead', who has already lost some of his brood, a Sun with his home threatened, with an injured brood behind him, and the Arcobaleno can see his rage and determination when he speaks in the ringing silence.

"It doesn't matter that Harry's gone. People die every day! Friends, family. Yeah, we lost Harry tonight." A pause, that flicker of burning gold, his resolve solidifying as Neville continues "He's still with us, in here." A fist slamming into his chest in emphasis. "So is Fred… Remus, Tonks, all of them. They didn't die in vain. But you will! Because you're wrong! Harry's heart did beat for us, for all of us. It's not over!"

The Arcobaleno see Harry's lips twitch with pride for the timid boy who had grown into a shining Sun, who had stepped up when all others had stepped back, when Harry was not there to lead the charge.

He takes his cue, and rolls out of Hagrid's arms under disbelieving stares before he shoots off a spell at Voldemort's back.

The battle begins anew.

O~O~O~

The Arcobaleno watch as, in the middle of chaos, Neville is the one to behead the last Horcrux- Voldemort's snake-and how the Death Eaters are vicious in their attacks.

They are there when Harry lunges forward, no wand in hand and rips his Basilisk Fang dagger from its place around his neck and slams it into Voldemort's throat.

They watch as Tom Riddle drops to the ground choking on blood and poison eating at his veins with no phoenix to save him. It is an agonizing death for all its speed.

No great bouts of magic, no duels, no great speeches.

Just Harry lunging forward and a blade to the throat. A very 'muggle' death for all that Basilisk Venom is magical.

It's fitting, they think, that Voldemort die this way, the way Harry had 'killed' Tom's first Horcrux.

They've come full circle.

O~O~O~

The battle stops for a moment before it grows more vicious.

The Death Eaters left standing know this is the end for them. There is no Voldemort to save them, and the other side of the war had lost too much to let them escape unharmed. There will be no lying their way out of charges this time and they know it. So they fight. They fight like their lives are on the line, like it is the last thing they will ever do.

Because they are, and it is.

O~O~O~

When the battle ends and Harry walks through the battlefield, the Arcobaleno mourn for him.

He finds many of his friends, those he had claimed as family among the dead. Children. Some he knew, some he didn't, but all mourned.

The Arcobaleno walk with him, memorizing faces and names as they go, so that their Cloud will not be the only one left to remember these people, these children that had fought with him. They are there when he finds George crouched over Bill and begging his older brother not to leave him too.

Harry flies to their side and the Arcobaleno rush behind him. Bill's breathing is harsh, there are multiple gouges across his face, and blood is everywhere. "George what happened?!"

"A werewolf clawed him across the face and threw him around. He wasn't bitten, but he's bleeding too much and I can't—Harry I can't lose him too."

Harry had already seen the other Weasleys in the battle field, had already carried their bodies back into the castle so they could be laid to rest properly later on. He knows that aside from George and Charlie, Bill is the only living Weasley left. The only member of the family who had taken in and cared for an orphaned boy with no idea what he was doing.

His eyes flare violet as he swears "You won't lose him George. I promise."

They witness Harry's Flames flare to life in his hands and how he presses them over the wounds. They watch and realize that Harry is pumping Cloud Flames into Bill in order to replenish his blood supply. They are unware of how Harry is also using his Flames to find and isolate Bill's immune system, his white blood cells, and boost their amount and strength.

Harry himself is unaware of how his Flames find the bits of the Werewolf curse in Bill's blood- enough to be present and make his instincts a bit more feral, but not to cause him to turn- and boost the natural healing ability that comes along with the curse.

The end result is that Bill's heartbeat strengthens, his wounds heal into scars, and Bill lives.

Fleur thanks him endlessly, as George does. Harry is also the one that finds Charlie in the mess (the man having come back to his family from Romania when the war started really picking up) and sends him to the remaining members of his family.

Charlie thanks him as well and Harry leaves to release the children and parents in the Chamber below. He smiles, exhausted and ready to collapse into tears and rage, but happy at least that he had kept his promise to these children.

"Voldemort is gone. He'll never hurt anyone ever again. I promised after all."

O~O~O~

The Arcobaleno watch as Harry is given no time to mourn properly, how he is then pulled into the rebuilding effort, how he is pulled into trials and laws. They watch as the pressure builds and how the breaking point approaches.

They know Clouds.

They know that if a Cloud is chained to something, they self-destruct and take everything around them along for the ride. They know that the explosion from Harry would be utterly and completely devastating.

Added to the fact that Harry is a Cloud who had suffered devastating losses, in territory and in family…at this point not even _Harry_ knows how lucky it truly is that he hadn't self-destructed and taken out Wizarding Britain with him.

And then Harry reaches the point where he has had enough. Enough of being asked to lead, to make choices, to put everyone and everything back together again when he hasn't even had the chance to put himself back together.

The Arcobaleno watch as he goes to his family and tells them "I have to go. I can't stay here anymore. I'll stay in touch though I promise, and if you need me I will come back for you always."

And the family who loves Harry, and can see how the Wizarding World is smothering him, killing his soul one piece at a time, lets him go.

The Arcobaleno watch the Stuntman that gives their Cloud hope and light. Watch as he takes up riding the motorcycle, and doing crazier and crazier stunts.

And then he meets them.

Utterly clueless about Flames, but a war veteran who recognizes that they are all very dangerous people that he doesn't trust who all have skills he doesn't understand.

So he builds a mask, he lies, he hides.

They see him discover what exactly the 'purple flame magic' he has been using really is. How he instantly begins to learn just from watching the other Arcobaleno on jobs, watch as Skull uses that visual learning to expand on what he can do with his Flames, how he learns with the speed of someone who is used to needing what they learn to save his own life and the lives of those he cares for.

And they watch as they buy the entire act: hook, line, and sinker.


	20. Chapter 20

The memory stops and suddenly Skull is standing in front of them again, speaking and looking through them, just as he had in the very beginning.

"That man in the bar from that day…he came to bring me back to the Wizards. The war I fought in, the ideals I tried so hard to end…it never stopped. It moved into politics. It moved into 'accidents' and hits. The war I tried to end is going on in the shadows. Everything I did…everything I lost…it was for _**nothing**_."

Skull's face twists with anger- with _fury_ \- and pain for an instant before he sighs. "They dragged my family into it. Took George, Bill and Fleur. Charlie is still in Romania, but…Fleur is pregnant. And they are being held to lure me back into that world. So my strings can be tugged to other people's whims—so that I can be _caged_. They who have already taken so much from me."

And then Skull's face becomes thunderous, his eyes shining with rage. "I will not allow it. Even if I have to destroy the entire Wizarding World of Britain."

O~O~O~

The Arcobaleno are pushed out of the Pensieve, gently this time, having come to the end of Skull's shared memories. It is not everything. It doesn't cover the all his struggles afterwards, or the struggles he goes through in regards to the Arcobaleno. It doesn't cover the disastrous months afterwards where Harry struggles with his losses and walks a knife-edge of continuing on or self-destructing as his inner Cloud rages over the loss of His Own. The Arcobaleno know this, but they have been shown much, have been shown enough. (For now).

They straighten from their places and eyes meet over the Pensieve. Their resolve is gleaming back at each other.

"We have a Cloud to join." Colonnello's voice rumbles in the silence.

Viper nods "I can get everyone in place. It will take some work, but we will be with Skull by the end of the day."

"Good" Reborn's voice is a dark rumble even as the Pensieve packs itself away now that it is no longer in use.

Viper vanishes from her place. She had information to find and a Cloud to follow.

" _We're coming Skull."_

The thought is unanimous.

O~O~O~

Skull feels it the instant his Pensieve packs itself away. He knows the moment the Arcobaleno had finished with his memories-13 hours after he handed them over (the memories had been shared at the speed of thought, but it had been a lot of memories to cover)- and he wonders at their reactions to what they now know. It's not everything, not even close…but it gives them a good chunk of the information, a good solid foundation.

Then he shakes his wandering thoughts off and takes a breath, sighting down his sniper rifle and tracking his target. He makes a note to thank Reborn for teaching him to handle all manner of guns (because 'no Lackey of The Greatest Hitman will not know how to shoot _properly'_ ) because the skills have become very useful in the last hours.

He feels his lips twitch into a smile when his target and the two body guards with him collapse to perfect between-the-eyes headshots. Even when the surrounding area erupts into motion, Skull is too far away to be pinpointed by the Wizards as the source of his target's sudden death, especially with the silencing spells around his place to keep the gunshots from being heard by those who would recognize them.

Sightings of Skull's prey have become rare as they retreat to their manors and wards and pray it will be enough to stop him. Some are foolish enough to step outside and Skull reacts instantly to the opportunities without hesitation- as he just had with his most recent target- but he still has quite the collection of targets to be killed.

Skull hums as he sits up and quickly dismantles his equipment before putting it away. It's mostly muscle memory and habit that makes Skull go through the motions. With magic, he could technically just shove his sniping equipment into his bottomless bag while everything is in one piece, but it is calming and instinctive to take everything apart and put it away. (It's also one of his happy memories with Reborn, who had been steady and patient with Skull while teaching him his art)

(He remembered Reborn saying it was because 'the art of gunmanship was not something to be rushed or taught half-heartedly')

He pulls himself to his feet as soon as he finishes and climbs down from his perch. He slips back through Diagon Ally and into the store known as _Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes_. Fred and George had keyed him into the wards surrounding the place when it first opened, and George had told him hundreds of times after the war that Harry was welcome. He had never thought he would be taking George up on that offer in this way though. Never thought he'd be using the shop as a base of operations to save his family.

He hadn't thought a lot of things.

O~O~O~

Viper is very careful as she gathers the information she needs. She only has one shot at this. It doesn't help that Skull had definitely been on the move, which is causing mass panic amongst the wizarding population and making her job harder.

Viper wasn't fazed however, slipping easily through the chaos and gathering the information she needs. (She isn't the best Information Broker money can buy for nothing)

She doesn't have the time to screw around, not when her Cloud is out there fighting a war alone, not when the rest of her Elements are waiting for her to come back to them and keep her promise of meeting up with Skull by the end of the day.

O~O~O~

Yuni doesn't move as she watches the Arcobaleno.

She had known for years that each of them were dangerous, that they were like big predators given human form. Watching the others after Viper leaves to gather information only enforces the image.

Colonnello was pacing. He alternated between being so tense Yuni wondered how his bones didn't snap under the pressure, and being lose in a way that a wolf might be before it lunged for the throat. His fists alternated between loosening up ready to reach for his rifle, and clenching so hard his knuckles bleached white. His lips pull back from his teeth in a feral snarl every few moments as if he would be able to rip the throat out of Skull's enemies.

Fon and Reborn are on the opposite side of the spectrum when Yuni looks their way. Both of the men are utterly still. Dangerously so. The way a black mamba would be just before it stuck so quickly there was no time to escape.

Fon is deceptively loose in his place by the wall. Loose the way he only ever is when he is about to cut loose and demolish his enemies entirely. In a way that allows him to choose from any of his multiple martial arts styles without warning. In the way that had earned him the title 'Eye of the Storm' amongst the mafia.

Reborn appears entirely relaxed in the chair he had sat in. His eyes are the only hint of the dangerous temper brewing under the façade. Leon sits atop the Sun's knuckles and it is the only other visible sign of Reborn's readiness to spring into action- that Leon is so close to his hands ready to respond in an instant and become whatever weapon Reborn could desire. Looking into Reborn's eyes Yuni has the thought that she is looking into the abyss, and the abyss was staring back.

When Yuni turns her eyes to Verde the man is sitting at the couch, a notebook in hand and his pen flying over the paper. She has the idle thought that a pen dragging over paper has never sounded so close to the warning rattle of a rattlesnake. And that really is what the sound should be compared to. Verde rarely ever loses his calm cool nature. But his ire had been stirred in this case, and Yuni _knows_ with the certainty a person would call the sky blue, that if she were to look at the notebook in the Lightning's hands it would be filled with some very _**not nice**_ experiments soon to have test subjects.

When she turns to stare at Lal she sees the woman very intently and calmly going over her guns. The weapons are all pulled apart and she's cleaning them. Yuni has the thought that it's like watching a lioness sharpen their claws in preparation for the hunt. Lal always took care of her weapons, but she was only _that_ meticulous when she was going out to Clean House where there would be an unknown amount of enemies with unknown power levels.

With Viper out doing what she did best- gathering information and making plans- Yuni knows it is only a matter of hours at the most before the Arcobaleno take the Wizarding World by storm and join Skull on his crusade.

Her eyes cloud over for a moment as she gets a glimpse of what is to come.

When Elements Rage in synch with each other, when their Rage is stirred on behalf of one another…there are no words for it.

The world's oldest tales of The End of Days, the tales that whisper of The Horsemen, of beings descending onto the mortal plane to wipe out those who were deserving of it are based on Elements Raging together.

And the Arcobaleno are the strongest of them.

Yuni blinks as the room comes back into focus.

The Wizarding World has no idea what they have unleashed upon themselves.

O~O~O~

Two hours.

It takes Viper two hours to gather enough information to go back to the others. It's late, but there will be no waiting for the Arcobaleno. They _will_ be with their Cloud before the night ends.

She transports herself back to the others.

O~O~O~

The moment Viper appears the Arcobaleno mobilize, coming closer and waiting. There are no questions, no frantic exclamations, no scrambling questions. This is the stillness and silence of the World's Best waiting for a briefing.

Viper delivers.

She tells them of the situation in Britain. She speaks on the politics and the shadow hits and 'accidents' Skull had spoken of. She tells them about what the politics had covered up- the rot and sickness hidden under gilded words. She speaks on Skull's actions, the things he had done, the name he was given and the mark he had left at the scene of every retaliation against his enemies.

Their enemies.

She tells the Arcobaleno about Skull's family.

And then they are moving.

O~O~O~

Skull senses the moment the Arcobaleno enter the Alley.

He lifts his head and his lips twitch.

O~O~O~

Viper had layered the Arcobaleno and herself with Mist Flames as they appeared in Diagon. It didn't matter it was so late at night. The Alley was still bustling partly because some Creatures could only emerge at night, and partly because of the hornet nest Skull had stirred up with his actions. She wanted no attention drawn to them, wanted no one aware the Arcobaleno had not been in the Alley for weeks before the 'accidents' started happening in regards to the Death Eaters, and her Mist Flames ensure it is as she wishes. (Everyone that glances at the place they walk cannot see them, but at the same time the idea that the group hidden by the Mist had been in the Alley for a month is placed in the people's heads)

She watches as the Arcobaleno scan their surroundings, the only hint that they are not used to the open uses of magic being the way their eyes pause on certain things or people for a fraction of a second.

Viper flares her Flames once, twisting them _just so_ , so that no one other than Skull himself will sense what she had done. She didn't want attention pulled to them by allowing the wizards around her to sense her Flames after all.

And then they wait.

O~O~O~

Skull seems to appear out of the crowds.

Even with his purple hair and punk-clothes, Skull blends into the crowd until he seems to just melt into being in front of them. His eyes- black for the moment- are steady as he meets each of the Arcobaleno's.

They meet his eyes head on, thousands of words exchanged in a glance, and a thousand more they will speak on later. Skull doesn't speak, he nods, tilts his head in a silent command, and slips through the crowds.

The Arcobaleno obey the silent command and follow Skull through the crowds, Viper's Mist Flames shifting and onlookers' attentions elsewhere for the few seconds it takes the group to pass by.

Skull leads them to _Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes_ , and makes a silent motion for them to wait outside. He slips inside long enough to key the Arcobaleno into the wards. The twins had trusted him, allowed him the ability to add and remove peoples' access to the store and their home. Skull knew how much trust he had been shown by the twins- and until the Arcobaleno he had never used his ability to add and remove people from their wards.

Skull opens the door and beckons them inside, a request the Arcobaleno obey immediately.

The room is silent as they stare at each other once the door closes behind the Arcobaleno.

O~O~O~

After watching those memories, seeing how wrong they had been about their Cloud, the Arcobaleno wonder what to say.

How did one go about apologizing for being so blind to the suffering and sorrow in one of their own?

They weren't really sure.

And Skull frowned after a moment, taking a breath and breaking the silence. There was much to cover between them, much that would need to heal and be addressed, but Skull had family to save first and foremost. "The Neo-Eaters have disappeared behind their Wards in an attempt to hide from me. When they leave the protection of their wards, they hide behind hit-wizards, protection charms, and bodyguards in hopes of protecting themselves." Skull's eyes shimmer with his Flames, and it is the only visible sign of his ire.

Reborn tilts his head after a moment. They owe Skull more apologies then they will ever be able to give him- but Reborn has the thought- and it is a thought the other Arcobaleno share- that helping their Cloud kill his enemies to get to his family is a good start.

If Skull wants to put off talking in favor of that, none of the Arcobaleno will stop him. It _will_ be talked about- they will not allow these wounds caused by ignorance to fester- but they have family to save and family _always_ comes first.

Family is sacred after all.

And they would teach these wizards not to touch one of their own.

O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~

 **Okay, life got up and murdered me. Hurricanes are** _ **not**_ **fun. The family is alright, but damage was done and is being dealt with so this next update might take a while. Apologies in advance. Just in case I don't see y'all- Happy Halloween!**


	21. Chapter 21

**Skull** _argued_ **with me the** _ **entire chapter**_ _._ **I rewrote this three times (and am still not quite happy with it) and was stuck. I do, however, give credit where credit is due, and so I thank SecretEngima who let me bounce ideas off of her, helped me get through the chapter, and managed to get me writing** _ **properly**_ **again. Thank you darling!**

 **Merry (belated) Christmas! (Or Holiday of your choice should you celebrate another)**

 **ALSO:** She has adopted the Femme Fatale chapter in Flicker and you would all go check it out (though it is crossed over with Transformers).

O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~

It is…odd…for Skull to have the Arcobaleno planning beside him in this. It is not odd to work with them- he has been doing so for decades now after all- no, it is odd that he is working beside them as he _is_ not as he pretends to be, in the middle of the Magical World.

It is odd that he is being treated with respect, that his words are being given _weight_ in their discussions on tactics and plots where before he would have been ignored, scoffed at and most likely kicked to the side. It is odd that when Skull voices an opinion in direct opposition to Reborn, or Colonnello he is not kicked or hit, but asked _why_.

A part of him is vindictively thrilled at the obvious evidence their world view of him has shattered so entirely- another feels…disoriented. Almost like he had stood on the edge of a building and a strong wind threatened to knock him off. He hasn't quite fallen, but he teetered on that edge, unsure of his footing for an instant.

Skull had always been the best at learning under pressure though, and even as he teetered on that edge of falling, Skull corrected his balance. He had been a General long before the Arcobaleno had met him, and so Skull has no trouble taking control of the situation where he is so much more informed then the others.

O~O~O~

Viper is both amazed and horrified.

She'd missed so much. This was _Harry Potter: Man-Who-Conquered_. Her Cloud, Skull De Mort. Cloud Arcobaleno.

The man she owed her own freedom to- who all of Wizarding Britain owed their freedom to. She had not treated Skull as badly as the others, she had interfered if she truly thought it needed, but that had not been often.

Sure she had thought she was doing Skull a favor in that if he was going to run around in the _Mafia_ , he would have to learn to 'toughen up' and deal with everything…but everything was wrong.

Instead she had allowed the man she owed a debt to…to be hurt. She had not hurt him, had not lifted a hand in his direction, but she had most often stood by, had not lifted a hand _for_ him either.

Viper felt a little (a lot) sick.

And watching him now?

Watching the layers of masks she associated with _Skull_ fall away to show the General he had always been, it has never been so clear to her that she had been _blind_. Watching him mobilize on behalf of his own, watching him gear up for _war_ …she had been a fool.

Her world has tilted, the clouds had cleared and the truth is shining as bright as the sun, blinding her in its intensity.

The masks are gone now, and she can _see_ how tense Skull- Harry- is, how intensely focused he is.

Viper owes this man so much. This man who has shattered and pulled himself back together through sheer stubborn bullheadedness, who has been stretched thin to the point of almost breaking. A broken, pained hero who has soldiered on through fire and hell.

She will _**not allow it to go on.**_

She is the World's Best Information Broker.

His family is missing-taken with the express purpose of trapping Skull, tugging on his strings. For a purpose that would _shatter_ Skull completely, like a grenade, he would go off, shatter apart into shrapnel and would take everyone around him along with him.

But no. Not this time. This time Skull is marching to war _with her_ , and she is the Mist. She will shield him and his, she will hide their forms from their enemies, she will twist reality around them. This time it will be different.

 _Viper_ _ **will**_ _find his family, she_ will _bring them back to him, and these wizards would never touch him or his again._

 _This time he is not Harry Potter, the Chosen One, the_ _ **Only One That Can.**_ He is _Skull De Mort_ , he is _hers_ and he is not alone.

He never will be again.

O~O~O~

Lal has never been so glad for her army training before.

She's _used_ to following superior's orders. She's used to doing so even if she doesn't like the superior in question. She may be high on the pecking order, but she is not the top. She knows how to fall in line behind a General. She knows when to push, how to offer her opinions, when to back down, when to shut up and stay that way.

It's not that she doesn't like Skull, he is one of _hers_ , and as annoying as she had found him to be, she liked him well enough. Watching his memories, finding out how off her opinions had been, that she had _**missed**_ the fact Skull was a Soldier, someone like _her_ …

Discovering as she watched him lead, fall into the role of General that he is someone she could follow and respect if he had been _her_ General…that's a little hard to swallow. She feels like someone shot her in the knee, took out one of her supports, knocked her off balance.

But her training, her _instinct_ allows her to fall behind Skull as he sheds the labels of Lackey, Weakling, Civilian, and Coward to don the face of Leader, Survivor, General, Veteran.

She falls back on the training that has lead her so well as she struggles to see in a word that suddenly feels inverted and off. She listens to the Cloud as he lays the situation out for them, as he points out enemies and strongholds, as he explains the protections standing in their way.

Her world is rearranging, but she can do this.

 _This_ is familiar, _this_ is like breathing. She can do this, she can follow a General worthy of her respect, she can follow a man moving to save his family, she can defend that, defend the freedom of one of her own.

She just has to keep her head above the rearranging pieces of her world as she absorbs the fact this General she so respects is one and the same as Skull.

O~O~O~

It's like the first time he had been caught in the blast range of a grenade.

He had been thrown clear across the field, shrapnel had torn into his body, he had been one giant bruise, his arm had been sprained, and he had gotten a concussion when he came to a sudden stop face first against a wall.

Colonnello has no idea how else to describe it.

He had been part of the army for years, even before his Flames, before the Mafia. He had lived and been raised on and in Military. He had _always_ been able to see fellow soldiers. Fellow survivors.

But Skull…Skull is that grenade.

Colonnello hadn't seen him coming, hadn't been ready, and the blast of knowledge that had been the Memories, has thrown him.

Watching Skull now, _**seeing**_ the General he is and has been the _entire time Colonnello has known him_ up close instead of through memories…it is the shrapnel from the blast. It tears at him. Sinks into his skin, leaves him bleeding and agonized because he had never been so…

How had he missed the survivor, the _fighter_ Skull was? The Leader? Colonnello had spent his entire life surrounded by leaders both good and back, vicious and kind. He _should have seen it_.

As he stares at the Skull in front of him now, leaning over a map he had pulled from the wall, and pointing our key points and places of suspicion as well as the sure targets, the shrapnel of his ignorance digs a little deeper.

Skull is _clever_ he is keen, he is a blade, old and worn, a little chipped in places but sturdy, reliable, and still sharp enough to eviscerate a man.

Colonnello is seeing the _**Veteran**_ in Skull shining brightly, as he turns to Lal and himself, to each of the Arcobaleno asking opinions and correcting them where they fail to take Magic into account. He is seeing _Experience_ in the Cloud as he rejects ideas and reworks them on the go to work best with what he has.

He is seeing the _**General**_ in action as he coordinates their ideas and specialties into a working plan.

O~O~O~

It is the blindness of looking straight into the sun, or perhaps in the flash of lightning.

Verde had been so very certain of his facts. Tested and tried, worked and reworked, Verde had been _certain_ of his information. This new information had shaken everything, shattered his views, and reformed them.

He feels blind, deaf, and dumb.

Verde _**does not like it**_.

And sitting with Skull, working on ways to get past _magic_ of all things, Verde feels very much like he was struck by lightning. The jarring impact of the information, searing into his mind, shattering everything, the light that flashed so brightly and suddenly he is blind, the crashing noise that makes him deaf…

And in learning this information he has been introduced to _Magic_. Everything he had known before this, every project he had worked on, every theory he had come up with, every half-formed thought…it had been done with a missing variable.

 _It was wrong_. Missing work. This changed _everything._

His world has shifted upside down and suffered a natural disaster of epic proportions.

And on top of that, he had been so _very_ wrong about Skull. He had dismissed the Cloud. Thought him useless, unimportant in the grand scheme of things.

And yet here he sits, smartest scientist in the world, a man labeled with the 'greatest mind in generations' and he is being taught by one he had considered uneducated and dismissed.

It's…humbling. His very thought process works against him in these scenarios where logic has no place, and common sense seems to be nonexistent. Where there seems to be _no rules_.

It annoys him, is a bit irksome, but at the same time, that flash of lightning…that natural disaster Verde's world has suffered?

It had pierced the darkness that had hidden Skull away. It unearthed and brought to light that cunning, vicious mind, that has no limit to what can be done or thought of. It had shredded Verde's blinders.

And for all that Verde feels very much like a man lost at sea in a storm, he is glad for it.

A Scientist needs all the variables to fix mistakes after all.

O~O~O~

Fon is a Storm. He has found his 'Eye, is generally calm and controlled, but this makes him no less of a Storm.

He feels strongly, his temper is destructive and powerful when stirred.

And it has been stirred on behalf of his Cloud.

It doesn't help that Fon feels very blindsided by Memories he now carries of what his Cloud has suffered alone for so long.

Fon had always been absolutely enthralled with Flames and the way they manifested and interacted in people and with other Flames.

Clouds were Protectors at their cores. The very first line of defense for their people even before Storms. They were the ones that looked at a situation from afar, the ones that absorbed what was happening and what needed to happen and then _made_ it happen.

Clouds were the ones to stir the other Elements. In an ironic twist- they were the Generals. The ones to tell the Sky what was coming, to maneuver the Elements into the proper positions to defend their home.

Where did the Storm spring from?

Clouds.

And where there was a Storm, it brought the Rain, the Lightning.

What was Mist at its core?

A ground-bound Cloud. (Which- Fon was sure- was part of the reason Clouds and Mists either got along or didn't. They were either _too_ alike and butted heads, or were complimentary)

What was it that shielded the entirety of the Sky? That could provide the Sun a place to rest and hide its light?

Clouds.

Skull had been an exception in some ways to these things, and in others he had been exactly a Cloud. Fon had known Skull was protective, even before the Future-that-Wasn't. It had been there in the little things, the way Skull had gotten loud and extra annoying to pull attention away from the others where needed, the way he would sometimes 'trip' directly between one of the others and threats, the way that, when the chips were down, Skull's Flames were a bonfire at their back strong and shielding. Seeing the Not-Future where Skull had stood between an army and the others while poisoned and _not allowed a single soul to get past him_ had only solidified that knowledge.

But Fon had not realized that Skull had _**always**_ been a protector. That he was a Cloud that had _lost_ a large amount of those that were claimed as his own. He had not realized he was a Cloud that had fought in War. A Cloud that had lost, so, _so_ much and had now had those he considered his own taken hostage to _cage him_.

Watching Skull now, arguing his points with the others, leaning over maps, intense, with that sharp lethal focus of a Leader…Fon can see that Skull is absolutely _furious_ , but is sitting at his own personal 'Eye' in his rage.

That was fine. Skull might have found his eye, but Fon was teetering on the edge of his own. Skull was _his_. Everything he had learned in the Memories he had been shown, had only deepened that for Fon. From what he could see Skull had not mourned his losses from Before, not truly, and now everything he had left from Before was being threatened. If he lost the rest of His Own…Fon was certain Skull would self-destruct.

As the Storm to his Cloud, Fon refused to allow Skull to suffer any more loss or face any more war on his own. He could meditate on all the new information he had later, after they had his Cloud's family back.

For now, at this moment, Fon would Rage on his Cloud's behalf, would fight to save what his Cloud had left.

O~O~O~

Yuni knows she is not _quite_ the Arcobaleno Sky.

She is partially Harmonized to them. She is _theirs_ and they are _hers_ , but she is not quite what each of them need to be their _True_ Sky. The fact that she is a Juvenile Sky only makes them more protective of her.

All Flame users that are sane and not Corrupted Flames, are instinctively protective of young Elements- young Skies especially. The stronger the Element, the stronger the instinct to shield and nurture the Juvenile Element. As a powerful young Sky surrounded by the World's Strongest Flame Users, it was inevitable that they would be protective of her, that they would try to teach her, nurture her.

But they are _hers_ , and she is _theirs_ despite not being completely Harmonized.

And she is not happy about this attack on her Cloud through his own.

She is not happy that _this_ is how the Arcobaleno find out about their Cloud's past either.

But she is thrilled to see Skull letting his masks fall away, to watch his true self shine through, to watch him stretch his wings and show the Arcobaleno what he had hidden away.

She can _See_ What Will Be, now that the Arcobaleno know what Skull is, who he was and who he is now.

She is thrilled to see the potential future, and she will work for her own to have the best future she could give them.

They will Rage together, and it will take work, the Arcobaleno will have to work hard, work to help Skull through the aftermath of this, but What Will Be will be beautiful…if everything works out.

And Yuni is determined to see everything to work out.

For Skull and the other Arcobaleno.

O~O~O~

Reborn had not botched something so horribly as this since his very first Hit.

He has spent three decades dismissing and looking down on Skull for being the 'weak civilian with no idea what he is doing'.

He had claimed more than once that Skull's ignorance would see him dead if he wasn't careful. Not as a threat, but as a genuine worry, because he had _believed_ that to be truth.

Watching the Memories of Skull's past, Reborn has come to the understanding that he has completely misjudged everything he thought he knew about the Cloud. Skull is smart, he is cunning, he is careful. He knows how to misdirect and hide in plain sight. He knows how to sabotage, plot and plan and enact his plans. He knows _war_.

In short, Skull is very likely to _survive_ the Mafia. Has all the skills he needs, was in fact _so_ skilled at it that he had fooled the Best the Mafia had to offer.

Watching Skull lean over maps and lay out his plans and needs, even as he listens to their suggestions and either accepts them or rejects them and then _tells them why_ their ideas were rejected…

Reborn is realizing that Skull was skilled, that he had _so much_ potential, that he had _experience_ with things going so south they ended up north.

And he is being forced to look back at his actions over these last three decades, to look at all the different situations the Arcobaleno had found themselves in with the new information he has on Skull…and he is being forced to see the damage his prejudice about Skull being an 'incapable civilian with no Flame knowledge' had done.

He was the leader of the Arcobaleno, the one that had the most presence, the one that took the lead, and in displaying his utter bias he had infected the others even before they had a chance to truly form opinions. Reborn knew they had their own bias towards civilians, but he was also sure that his own had not helped the situation.

And looking back on everything with newly opened eyes, he can see the many, many times he had flat out rejected or mocked Skull's ideas on principle, ideas he could now see would have saved them all so trouble in FUBAR missions if he had only shut up, set his preconceived notions aside, and _**listened**_. He can see the way Skull slowly stopped trying to offer ideas to any of them in any serious capacity, and he can now see the times that it really, honestly mattered, how Skull had used that cunning of his to manipulate them all in just the right way to make them think his plans were their own ideas. And he can see how their notions of how Skull _was_ had only helped him manipulate them when it was truly needed, because of _course_ the Civilian could never manipulate _them_.

Reborn was the Healer. He didn't act like if often of course, but despite everything he was still a Sun, the Healer of his own. He had spent decades standing and working with Skull and he has been so blinded by what he 'knew' that he had missed the agony in his Cloud. He had failed to heal him. Failed to help him.

He refused to fail so utterly ever again.

And he would start here- helping Skull get his family back.

O~O~O~

The Arcobaleno are unbalanced. Their worlds have shifted, something they had considered a fact of life, has changed.

For decades they have looked at their 'Civilian Cloud' and seen someone who was not meant for battle, for high-stress situations, for plotting and fighting.

And for decades, that has been _exactly_ what their Cloud has done, what he has lived through and adapted to. What he had done before he had even known to call his purple fire Flames. He has known exactly what he is capable of, what he could do and stand, and adapt to. Skull knew his limits.

For the Arcobaleno, who have spent the last thirty-three years subconsciously enforcing the ideas that Skull- their Cloud- was not and could not do these things…learning that he has done them, can do them, _is_ doing them now and may even be better at it then they are in some ways…they are very unbalanced.

His skills are different than theirs. They are hitmen, assassins, soldiers, information gathers, scientists…they are the ones that work with surprise from the shadows. He is the one that stands in the spotlights, coordinates and _leads_ everyone, and even while the focus of everyone manages to go out and fight and _win_.

It was one thing to see in his Memories how Skull had been a General, leader and soldier both on the front lines of a war while being Target Number One on his enemies' lists.

It is another thing entirely, to see Skull shed his masks, to watch his violet eyes harden and sharpen, to watch as the General in him stirs, a War Veteran Survivor, now educated up close and personal with the ways of the Mafia and made all the more Dangerous for it.

Their worlds had been shifted and shattered, changed and rearranged, but the Arcobaleno stand firm. They will not fail their Cloud in this. They will adjust. They will learn, they will bow to his superior knowledge and they _**will**_ get his family back.

Everything else can come after.


	22. Chapter 22

Reborn is still and silent, perched on a roof and layered with Mist Flames to keep his form and all he does from notice. Usually he would not need the Mist Flames, not when he was the best at what he did, but with Magic in play they were erroring on the side of caution. They couldn't afford to screw up.

His eyes are sharp and focused as he sets his sights down the barrel of his chosen gun, tracking his target easily. Most would call what Reborn is looking at an 'impossible shot'.

Reborn calls it fun.

His finger caresses the trigger lightly, eyes narrowing as he runs the math through his head one last time. And then he fires the gun without a sound to give him away.

A body falls, and burned into the forehead, just between the eyes, is a tribal sun made with his Flames, the bullet hole perfectly centered to the sun mark. People are screaming as Reborn takes a moment to watch the chaos he has just caused, golden eyes dimming back to black as his Flames fade, allowing the enhanced vision Reborn has used to track his target without a scope or aide of any kind to fade.

He slid back across the roof he had chosen, slipping easily down the side and back to the ground as Leon returned to his perch on Reborn's fedora. Black eyes glint as they meet the violet that are waiting for him.

Reborn is adjusting, but it's…strange. Uncomfortable, like walking into his home and finding someone had moved all the furniture inside two and a half inches to the right while he was away. After they managed to get through all his traps without setting them off.

He had called Skull 'lackey' for three decades. It went against everything he had learned in that time for him to fall in line behind the Cloud.

He kind of wants to hit the Cloud, for hiding all of this from them. But he can't- he won't. Not when he has seen what Skull's sorry excuse for human relatives had done to him. Not when he is finally seeing who Skull actually _is_ , no matter how uncomfortable he is in the face of it.

It is against all that he has learned in the decades he has known Skull, and yet…here he is, standing next to the Cloud and following his lead.

It had been following Skull's plan that saw him laid down on the roof taking the shot. It was Skull's plan that had Viper amongst the enemy now, easily gathering information. It was Skull that had made the calls of where and how the Arcobaleno would complete this mission to save his family.

And it was disorienting to see the Cloud he called Skull De Mort merge and twist with Harry Potter. To see 'Lackey' fall aside for 'General'.

Reborn was a hitman. He worked in the shadows, stepped behind the scenes, shifted things around to fall in favor of himself and the one to hold his contract.

Skull was a General, and it took a different kind of man then the Arcobaleno were used to seeing to be one. To be the face of the army, to _lead_ them into helpless situations. To be responsible for everything and everyone that followed him, to _win_ despite the light focused on him.

Reborn had stepped back to stand at Skull's side in this, but for the moment, he was slightly out of synch, his steps a moment too late, or a moment too early next to Skull's steady march.

He would adjust though- he wasn't known as The World's Best without reason.

~O~O~O~

Fon frowned at the wall.

He was babysitting.

He was babysitting the Juvenile Sky the Arcobaleno called their own.

He wasn't very fond of being reduced to babysitter in this situation, even though his instincts as a mature healthy Storm Flame bristled at the idea of Yuni- a young impressionable Sky Flame- in the middle of hostile territory alone.

He knew the others felt the same. It was instinct for Flame users to shelter and nurture young Flames, and the more powerful the Flame user, the more intense the instinct. This was _especially_ true when the Flame user was a young Sky.

As one of the Arcobaleno- the _Strongest Seven Flames in the world_ \- Fon and the others had very powerful, very insistent instincts. Instincts to protect and nurture the young Sky that had once died for them in that Future, until she could stand on her own.

Adding in the upset one of their own had suffered, the fact they were in the middle of hostile territory, and the knowledge he had just recently gained on Skull's past…Fon knew there was absolutely _no way_ they could have left Yuni alone. It wasn't like their world, where they knew everything they needed, had traps and trusted allies to watch over her. So it had to be one of them.

It didn't mean that Fon was very happy to be the one sitting still when he wanted to rage.

He'd taken to meditating in the middle of the shop they were using as Base, his Flames pulsing in time with his heartbeat, and spread over the entirety of the building. It worked to smooth the desire to burn everything in sight into ash. It wasn't gone, but it made it manageable. He looked forward to the moment Verde made it back from his experiments to switch out with him so he could go do some damage.

His eyes opened from his position kneeling in the center of the room, flaring bright ruby red with his flames, a slow predatory smirk on his lips.

He would show this world the rage of a Storm.

O~O~O~

Colonnello stood with Lal at his side. The two of them were murmuring to each other, soft meaningless small talk that helped their image amongst the people of the alley. Skull had given them Alley-appropriate robes and clothes before he left with Reborn, allowing them to slide between and around the civilian people as they gathered information.

They were not as good as Viper, but they _had_ worked with the CEDEF and Mafia Land. They _had_ to be good at gathering information.

Viper had been sent among the enemy, they would make themselves useful and gather information amongst the civilian populations.

As far as the wizards were concerned, they were simply a couple enjoying the alley. They made sure to appear to have casual touches, relaxed if careful body language alongside that casual small talk…

No one stopped them.

O~O~O~

Viper was a little bit insulted.

She was the best Illusionist in the world, a member of the Varia, one of the Strongest Seven…but these wizards…they were just as pathetic as she remembered from before. They were supposed to have Mind Shields. They were all aware of the danger of mind readers and yet, not one person she comes across makes her pause as she systematically pulls information from them.

She _wants_ to crush their minds as she goes, but she refrains only because she knows Skull's Cloudy tendencies will be _**monstrous**_ if he is denied the right to crush the enemies himself. She's rather impressed with his delegating as it was. Inverted Clouds tended to…not share 'prey' when they went hunting.

Perhaps, she wonders as she pulls secrets away from another Neo-Eater, it is because he had once been a General.

Perhaps it was that he had had to do so in his childhood years and could better handle doing so now because of it.

She frowns sharply as she comes across a piece of information. Skull will want _that_ tidbit immediately.

O~O~O~

Verde would have called this fun in any other situation.

He was endlessly fascinated, interested, in what he was discovering. This was something _new_ , something no one had touched before. He was the first of his level, the first _professional_ scientist to touch magic with the intent to pull it apart.

He is the first to try and use technology to work around and effect magic itself.

He is the first to _succeed_.

If this had been _any_ other scenario, if he had come across this naturally, and if his results were not needed to save Skull's family, Verde would have called this fun.

Once this was over, he resolved to pull Skull to the side and pick his brain, have him help Verde dive deeper into this magic and its workings. He'd have to be sure not to do so in a lab. Skull didn't like them, and Verde now understood why.

His eyes gleamed.

Flame technology responded very, very well in his use to disrupt various frets of magic so long as he layered the Flames used in it properly.

His head tilted as he observed the explosive response of Storm Flames paired with Mist and Magic.

Usually, he would never have been able to pair the two together without Fon and Viper working consciously to make it so. The disintegration of Storm tended to ruin and Creations of Mist when there were no Flame Users to twist their uses just so.

With magic, Verde had just discovered pairing of Flames that didn't usually work, could suddenly be used. This opened potential roads and future experiments he had never thought he could manage properly before.

Verde was unaware of the way sparks danced in his hair from his Flames at his excitement.

With _this_ he may have just found a possible solution to Skull's Warding problems. If anyone had been around, they would have heard a worrying cackle fall from Verde's lips.

O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~

 **I** _ **LIVE.**_

 **I had an entirely different chapter planned, rewrote it** _ **literally 15 times**_ **, argued with Skull for THE ENTIRE TIME, the other Arcobaleno, and my own muses. Eventually I just kinda went 'fuck it' and did this instead. Hope you all like it despite the wait!~**

 **(And holy** _ **fuck**_ **you guys, 1,500 reviews SDFSDFGDFSGDSFG.)**

 **On another note: Silverseed has posted a story called 'Being Yourself' inspired by this, and it looks really fun, so you should all go check that out.**


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